all around the Company gladdened their Hearts; which,
joined to the cheerful Looks of well-chosen and agreeable
Friends, gave new Vigour to the Airy, produced the
latent Fire of the Modest, and gave Grace to the slow
Humour of the Reserved. A judicious Mixture of
such Company, crowned with Chaplets of Flowers, and
the whole Apartment glittering with gay Lights, cheared
with a Profusion of Roses, artificial Falls of Water,
and Intervals of soft Notes to Songs of Love and Wine,
suspended the Cares of human Life, and made a Festival
of mutual Kindness. Such Parties of Pleasure
as these, and the Reports of the agreeable Passages
in their Jollities, have in all Ages awakened the
dull Part of Mankind to pretend to Mirth and Good-Humour,
without Capacity for such Entertainments; for if I
may be allowed to say so, there are an hundred Men
fit for any Employment, to one who is capable of passing
a Night in the Company of the first Taste, without
shocking any Member of the Society, over-rating his
own Part of the Conversation, but equally receiving
and contributing to the Pleasure of the whole Company.
When one considers such Collections of Companions in
past Times, and such as one might name in the present
Age, with how much Spleen must a Man needs reflect
upon the aukward Gayety of those who affect the Frolick
with an ill Grace? I have a Letter from a Correspondent
of mine, who desires me to admonish all loud, mischievous,
airy, dull Companions, that they are mistaken in what
they call a Frolick. Irregularity in its self
is not what creates Pleasure and Mirth; but to see
a Man who knows what Rule and Decency are, descend
from them agreeably in our Company, is what denominates
him a pleasant Companion. Instead of that, you
find many whose Mirth consists only in doing Things
which do not become them, with a secret Consciousness
that all the World know they know better: To
this is always added something mischievous to themselves
or others. I have heard of some very merry Fellows,
among whom the Frolick was started, and passed by a
great Majority, that every Man should immediately
draw a Tooth; after which they have gone in a Body
and smoaked a Cobler. The same Company, at another
Night, has each Man burned his Cravat; and one perhaps,
whose Estate would bear it, has thrown a long Wigg
and laced Hat into the same Fire. [2] Thus they have
jested themselves stark naked, and ran into the Streets,
and frighted Women very successfully. There is
no Inhabitant of any standing in Covent-Garden, but
can tell you a hundred good Humours, where People
have come off with little Blood-shed, and yet scowered
all the witty Hours of the Night. I know a Gentleman
that has several Wounds in the Head by Watch Poles,
and has been thrice run through the Body to carry
on a good Jest: He is very old for a Man of so
much Good-Humour; but to this day he is seldom merry,
but he has occasion to be valiant at the same time.
But by the Favour of these Gentlemen, I am humbly of
Opinion, that a Man may be a very witty Man, and never
offend one Statute of this Kingdom, not excepting
even that of Stabbing.