Denied beef, I had Bulwer and Cowper; forbidden mutton, there was Lamb; and in lieu of pork, the great Bacon, or Hogg.  Then as to beverage; it was hard, doubtless, for a Christian to set his face, like a Turk, against the juice of the grape.  But, eschewing wine, I had still my Butler; and in the absence of liquor, all the Choice Spirits from Tom Browne to Tom Moore.  Thus though confined physically to the drink that drowns kittens, I quaffed mentally, not merely the best of our own home-made, but the rich, racy, sparkling growths of France and Italy, of Germany and Spain; the champagne of Moliere, the Monte Pulciano of Boccaccio, the hock of Schiller, and the sherry of Cervantes.  Depressed bodily by the fluid that damps everything, I got intellectually elevated with Milton, a little merry with Swift, or rather jolly with Rabelais, whose Pantagruel, by the way, is equal to the best gruel with rum in it.

So far can Literature palliate, or compensate, for gastronomical privations.  But there are other evils, great and small, in this world, which try the stomach less than the head, the heart, and the temper; bowls that will not roll right, well-laid schemes that will ’gang aglee’, and ill winds that blow with the pertinacity of the monsoon.  Of these Providence has allotted me a full share, but still, paradoxical as it may sound, my burthen has been greatly lightened by a load of books.  The manner of this will be best understood by a feline illustration.  Everybody has heard of the two Kilkenny cats, who devoured each other; but it is not so generally known, that they left behind them an orphan kitten, which, true to its breed, began to eat itself up, till it was diverted from the operation by a mouse.  Now the human mind, under vexation, is like that kitten, for it is apt to prey upon itself, unless drawn off by a new object, and none better for the purpose than a book.  For example, one of Defoe’s; for who, in reading his thrilling History of the Great Plague, would not be reconciled to a few little ones?

Many, many a dreary weary hour have I got over—­many a gloomy misgiving postponed—­many a mental and bodily annoyance forgotten by help of the tragedies, and comedies, of our dramatists and novelists!  Many a trouble has been soothed by the still small voice of the moral philosopher; many a dragon-like care charmed to sleep by the sweet song of the poet!  For all which I cry incessantly, not aloud, but in my heart, ’Thanks and honour to the glorious masters of the pen, and the great inventors of the press!’ Such has been my own experience of the blessing and comfort of literature and intellectual pursuits; and of the same mind, doubtless, was Sir Humphry Davy, who went for Consolations in Travel, not to the inn, or the posting-house, but to his library and his books.

To DR. MOIR

A humourist to the last