Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/26

14 Charlotte. The philosophy of Voltaire and Rousseau was affected by the more pretentious; there was much open and unblushing immorality in the higher ranks; card-playing for large sums of money was almost universal; and the routs and masquerades described in Sir Charles Grandison and Evelina may be taken as types of the favourite diversions of the young and lively in The teacup times of hood and hoop, And when the patch was worn.

There were, however, other circles. There was that which was sometimes called that of the Wits, which assembled at their head-quarters at St. James's Coffee House, and which Goldsmith so ably sketched in Retaliation, though he durst not there touch on the elephant of this true menagerie of lions, Samuel Johnson, or his satellite Boswell, and contented himself with describing those of lesser pretension, such as Edmund Burke,— Though equal to all things, for all things unfit, Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit, For a patriot too cool, for a drudge disobedient, And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient. There, too, was Sir Joshua Reynolds,— Still born to improve us in every part, His pencil our faces, his manners our heart; and David Garrick, the great actor, "an abridgement of all that is pleasant in man."