Lord L----n.---- It is not enough, my Lord, that the English are a _miserable_, they render themselves a _ridiculous_ people: And, after all the noise the brawlers make in the lower house, they only fight the battles, aid the wishes of the Americans, and exalt the triumph of the French! In private life it is reckoned a good expedient, for the sake of an easy, quiet life, to be patient and submissive under what are supposed _necessary evils_: but I differ so much from this maxim, that I am convinced those will ever be _trod upon_ who _creep_; and that certain submissions derogatory to a sense of honor in an individual or the nation, never _prevent the blow_, though it may be _protracted_ for a reason, in order to lay it on with a redoubled force at a time our strength is weakened, and that we are debilitated by our mortifications and a sense of the submissions we have made injurious to the honor of an individual or the pride of the nation. It is a mortifying area, but must have its place in the annals of this disgraced kingdom, whilst extravagance and every species of gaieties daily increase. I am sorry to acquaint your Lordship, that the publication of your book has given in England the same wound to morality and business as the publication of _the spirit of laws_ has given in France to the monarchical constitution. The English study nothing now but the _Graces_. Procrastination is the _ton_, because any thing _abrupt is ungraceful_. The increase of manners has always been thought as imperceptible as the hand of a clock, which though in constant motion cannot be distinguished in _that motion_. But your book has occasioned a more rapid change: your countrymen having exchanged the _armour of Mars_ for the _amours of Venus_, their _greatness of mind_ and _magnanimity_ for _trifling pursuits_; and, instead of speaking forcibly in the senate, they whine a tale of love in the ear of their mistresses: having descended suddenly, like skilful musicians, from the _forte_ and the _pomposo_ to the _pia_ and the _pianissimo_. Refinement will bring us back to barbarity--far be it from me to suppose such an event can happen suddenly; but in the course of a few years, I make no doubt, as a man in days of yore that could read _had the benefit of clergy_, so will a man be esteemed an able minister, or an expert negotiator of business, if he can write a pretty sonnet--or dance a good minuet. Lord C----d.---- The graces, my lord, I still say, the graces for ever--and as to dancing, can there be any science more useful for a minister to learn--to figure _out_ with a good grace, never to _lose time_, and not even to nod, instead of _sleeping a century_?[52] Two other passengers applied to Charon to ferry them over the Styx, Homer and Ossian.