After the expression of this compliment, which gave perhaps as much satisfaction to him who framed it as to him who heard it, the doctor proceeded to descant on elegant literature and beauty and sublimity, and all that sort of thing. And Mr. Henderson, who was a very patient good-humored man, bore it all with most exemplary patience; for as in the pulpit he had all the talk to himself, he was not unwilling in the parlour to undergo in his turn the fatigue of listening. Talking may seem to be exertion, inasmuch as in the act of talking the tongue moves; and with many philosophers it is thought that motion is opposed to rest: with respect to the tongue, however, it is not so. Now, in the Paradise Lost of John Milton, the rebellious spirits who are cast out of heaven, and who meditate an effort to resume that state from whence they have been driven, are represented as saying that ascent is their natural, and descent their unnatural motion, which every body knows is quite the reverse with man; so it comes to pass that the tongue differs from all other objects or limbs, inasmuch as motion is its rest and stillness its weariness.
As Mr. Henderson was not altogether displeased with Dr. Crack's effort at a fine compliment, he gave the doctor a slight invitation to dine with him. The doctor, in spite of his manifold avocations, accepted the invitation. Eloquent as the doctor had been before dinner, he was still more so after. When the subject of music was mentioned, the doctor was so rapturous in its praise, that he might be said to have sung forth its honors. Then Miss Henderson played, and the doctor was delighted; then Miss Henderson sung, and the doctor was enraptured; then Miss Henderson talked sentimentality, and the doctor was enchanted.
END OF VOL. II.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.