(799) “We have had,” says Mr. Burke, “the great professor and founder of the philosophy of vanity in England.  As I had good opportunities of knowing his proceedings, almost from day to day, he left no doubt on my mind that he entertained no principle, either to influence his heart or to guide his understanding, but vanity; with this vice he was possessed to a degree little short of madness.  Benevolence to the whole species, and want of feeling for every individual with whom the professors come in contact, form the character of the new philosophy.  Setting up for an unsocial independence, this their hero of vanity refuses the just price of common labour, as well as the tribute which opulence owes to genius, and which when paid, honours the giver and the receiver:  and then he pleads his beggary as an excuse for his crimes.  He melts with tenderness for those only who touch him by the remotest relation; and then, without one natural pang, casts away as a sort of offal and excrement, the spawn of his disgustful amours, and sends his children to the hospital of foundlings.  The bear loves, licks, and forms her young; but bears are not philosophers."-E.

(800) This was Lodge’s “Illustrations of British History, Biography, and Manners, in the Reigns of Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, Mary, Elizabeth and James the First;” a work which has also been highly praised by Mr. Gifford, Sir Walter Scott, Sir Egerton Brydges, Mr. Park, and others.-E.

Letter 381 To The Miss Berrys.  Berkeley Square, June 2, 1791. (page 504)

To the tune of the Cow with the crumpled Horn, etc. 
“This is the note that nobody wrote.”
"
This is the groom that carried the note that nobody wrote.

“This is Ma’am Gunning, Who was so very cunning, to examine the groom that carried the note that nobody wrote.

“This is Ma’am Bowen, to whom it was owing, that Miss Minify Gunning was so very cunning, to examine the groom that carried the note that nobody wrote.

“These are the Marquisses shy of the horn, who caused the maiden all for-Lorn, to become on a sudden so tattered and torn, that Miss Minify Gunning was so very cunning, to examine the groom, etc.

“These are the two Dukes, whose sharp rebukes made the two Marquesses shy of the horn, and caused the maiden all for-Lorn, etc.

“This is the General somewhat too bold, whose head was so hot, though his heart was so cold; who proclaimed himself single before it was meet, and his wife and his daughter turned into the street, to please the Dukes, whose sharp rebukes,” etc.

This is not at all new; I have heard it once or twice imperfectly, but could not get a copy till now; and I think it will divert you for a moment, though the heroines are as much forgotten as Boadicea; nor have I heard of them since their arrival at Dover.