What he said
respecting them was highly characteristic of the man. "They are,"
said he, "the dullest things possible. On my return from abroad, I
visited them all, expecting to find something of that easy
disengaged mind which constitutes the charm of those of France and
Italy. But in London, among those who have a character to keep up,
there is such a vigilant circumspection, that I should as soon
expect to find nature in the ballets of the Opera-house, as genius
at the established haunts of authors, artists, and men of science.
Bankes gives, I suppose officially, a public breakfast weekly, and
opens his house for conversations on the Sundays. I found at his
breakfasts, tea and coffee, with hot rolls, and men of celebrity
afraid to speak. At the conversations, there was something even
worse. A few plausible talking fellows created a buzz in the room,
and the merits of some paltry nick-nack of mechanism or science was
discussed. The party consisted undoubtedly of the most eminent men
of their respective lines in the world; but they were each and all
so apprehensive of having their ideas purloined, that they took the
most guarded care never to speak of anything that they deemed of the
slightest consequence, or to hazard an opinion that might be called
in question.
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