I hinted to him, that I had formerly heard, that a certain great Personage, _tàm Marti quàm Mercurio_, equally illustrious for his martial and his musical talents, had adopted the practice; but as the Doctor had not recorded it in his tour to _Potzdam_, I imagined the report was without foundation. “Ah!” said he, “depend upon it, tho’ the Doctor has indeed omitted this circumstance in the admirable description he gives of that hero, and Dilettante practising his _solfeggi_ at _Potzdam_, yet he would never have been either the monarch, or the flutist he is without it. Do you think, added he, that illustrious philosopher could amuse himself so calmly in his closet with fugus and adagios, while ten thousand _Polish_ widows, and orphans, were imprecating curses upon the head of their unfeeling destroyer, unless he had totally disengaged himself from every incumbrance of his sex and species?” Here the entrance of the young ladies interrupted any further conversation on the subject. The eldest, his niece, who was called _Gluckinella Inglesina_, desired me to sing, which I did in the softest and most unmanly tone I could exert, that I might not again offend. I asked her what her real opinion of my voice was? she answered me with the most perfect affability, that I acquitted myself tolerably well _considering_; tho’ “she thought me too ambitious of displaying my talent of working parts and subjects, and added that my _cantilena_ was often rude.” I took an opportunity when I was alone with this young lady, to enquire if the _castrati_ were much in vogue at _Bristol_, and if that operation could be so safely attempted on elderly gentlemen; this young lady smiled at my simplicity, and assured me that the operation was safe and easy, and not so painful as to acquire any degree of resolution, and that the _castrati_ were the favourites of the ladies, both of the married and unmarried. She advised me by all means to undergo the operation as the Doctor had done in _Italy_, tho’ his excess of modesty prevented him from boasting of it in his excellent treatise. She added, that she could not with safety love me, unless I would submit to this for her sake.