CHAP. IV.] THE CITIZEN OF THE WOULD.

Trulliber undisturbed among his pigs, and a parson Adams 1750.
to his ale in Lady Booby's kitchen. Yet as little was he dis- ML 32.
posed to tolerate any false reaction from such indifference;
and at the ascetic saints of the new religious sect, which had
risen to put down cheerfulness, and could find its only music
in a chorus of sighs and groans, he aimed the shafts of his
wit as freely, as at the over-indulging, gormandising priests
of the bishop's visitation-dinner, face to face with whom,
gorged and groaning with excess, he brought the hungry
beggaTj faint with want, to ask of them the causes of his
utter destitution, body and soul. Nor did he spare that
other dignified profession, which, in embarrassing what it
professed to make clear, in retarding with cumbrous im-
pediments the steps of justice, in reserving as a luxury
for the rich what it pretended to throw open to all, in
fencing round property with a multiplicity of laws and
exposing poverty without a guard to whatever threatened
or assailed it, countenanced and practised no less a false-
hood.* Almost alone in that age of indifference, the Citizen

contemplate this. Goldsmith is less severe in his exposure, but it is efficient, too;

and I confess I never read a letter of Doctor Warner's, or think of his guzzling, his

telling the same story over and over again, and his indifference to any kind of

treatment shown Tiim or service exacted of him so long as his bumper of claret Is

well filled, without being forcibly reminded of Doctor Marrowfat. " 'As good a

' ' story,' cries he, bursting into a violent fit of laughter himself, 'as .ever you

' ' heard in your lives. There was a farmer in my parish who used to sup upon

' 'wild ducks and flummery; so this farmer'—'Doctor Marrowfat,' cries his

' lordship, interrupting him, 'give me leave to drink your health'—'so being

' ' fond of wild ducks and flummery'—' Doctor,' adds a gentleman who sat nest

' him, ' let me advise you to a wing of this turkey;'—' so this farmer being fond'

' ' —Hob and nob, doctor, which do you choose, white or red ?'—'so being fond of

' ' wild ducks and flummery;'—' Take care of your band, sir, it may dip iu the

' ' gravy.' The doctor, now looking round, found not a single ear disposed to

' listen : wherefore, calling for a glass of wine, he gulped down the disappoint-

' ment and the tale in a bumper." Letter Iviii.

* The simple notions of the Chinese citizen on this subject appear very alarming
to his friend, who uses precisely the defensive argument with which the absurdity
has been upheld ever since. " 'I see,' cries my friend, 'that you are for a speedyutterly undone.'" Citizen