TO MRS. LEADBEATER.
Dec. 25, 1815.
You ask me of Mrs. Piozzi. She is a lively, animated woman, far advanced in years, and peculiarly agreeable in countenance, conversation, and manners. So she appeared to me, who have only met her in mixed company, and so I have heard her described by others. She is a woman of very high spirits, and only two years ago went to a masquerade in Bath disguised as a constable, Lady Belmore (the dowager) and Miss Caldwell attending her as watchmen; and they amused themselves throwing the whole assembly into consternation by pretending they had a warrant to disperse and imprison them as engaged in an illegal amusement.
Alas, and have I seen in the Farmers Journal Mr. Lefanu’s eulogium on boxing, and has he condescended to use the old hackneyed argument that boxing is better than the stiletto! In my youth I used also to hear that ‘cards were better than scandal,’ as if there were no third manner of passing the evening.
1815.—The following are some of the thoughts and observations which I have found scattered up and down in my Mother’s note-books and journals, often without a date. More of them seem to belong to this year and the preceding than to any other, and I have therefore grouped them together at this place.
Our friends may commend us above our deserts without corrupting our hearts, because we know their opinions must be attributed to partiality, and cannot be shared by any indifferent persons.
A witty man is a public benefactor. Every time one of his brilliant sayings is repeated a portion of pleasure is imparted, keen according to the susceptibility of the hearer; a smile is called into tearful eyes; severity relaxes her brow, and anxiety forgets her cares. Social enjoyments are increased, the hearers like each other the better for the pleasure they have shared together. What an amount of enjoyment Jekyll has given to the world, raised for how many the leaden mantle of ennui, and eased them for a moment of its weight.