I was going one evening to Martini's concert at Milan, and was just entering the door of the hall, when the Marquefina di F-was coming out in a fort of a hurry-she was al most upon me before I faw her; fo I gave a spring to one fide to let her pass-She had done the fame, and on the fame fide too; fo we ran our heads together: fhe inftantly got to the other fide to get out: I was juft as unfortunate as fhe had been; for I had fprung to that fide, and oppofed her paffage again-We both flew together to the other fide, and then back-and fo on it was ridiculous; we both blufh'd intolerably; fo I did at last the thing I fhould have done at first- I flood stock fill, and the Marquefina had no more difficulty. I had no power to go into the room, till I had made her fo much reparation as to wait and follow her with my eye to the end of the passage— She look'd back twice, and walk'd along it rather fide-ways, as if fhe would make room for any one coming up ftairs to pass her-No, faid I-that's a vile tranflation: the Marquefina has a right to the beft apology I can make her; her; and that opening is left for me to do it info I ran and begg'd pardon for the embarassment I had given her, saying it was my intention to have made her way. She anfwered, she was guided by the fame intention towards me-fo we reciprocally thank'd each other. She was at the top of the flairs; and feeing no chichefbee near her, I begg'd to hand her to her coach-fo we went down the flairs, ftopping at every third step to talk of the concert and the adventure-Upon my word, Madame, faid I when I had handed her in, I made fix different efforts to let you go out-And I made fix efforts, replied fhe, to let you enter-I wifh to heaven you would make a feventh, faid IWith all my heart, said she, making roomLife is too short to be long about the forms of it-fo I inftantly stepp'd in, and she carried me home with her-And what became of the concert, St. Cecilia, who, I fuppofe, was at it, knows more than I. I will only add, that the connection which arofe out of that tranflation, gave me more pleasure pleasure than any one I had the honour to make in Italy. . I HAI THE D WAR F. PARIS. HAD never heard the remark made by any one in my life, except by one; and who that was, will probably come out in this chapter; fo that being pretty much unprepoffeffed, there muft have been grounds for what ftruck me the moment I caft my eyes over the parterreand that was, the unaccountable sport of nature in forming fuch numbers of dwarfs - No doubt fhe fports at certain times in almost every corner of the world; but in Paris, there is no end to her amusements-The goddess feems almost as merry as she is wife. As I carried my idea out of the opera comique with me, I measured every body I saw walking in the streets by it-Melancholy application! efpecially where the fize was extremely little the face extremely dark-the eyes eyes quick-the nose long- the teeth white the jaw prominent-to fee fo many miferables, by force of accidents driven out of their own proper clafs into the very verge of another, which it gives me pain to write down-every third man a pigmy!-fome by ricketty heads and hump backs-others by bandy legs-a third fet arrested by the hand of Nature in the fixth and feventh years of their growth-a fourth, in their perfect and natural flate, like dwarf apple-trees; from the first rudiments and ftamina of their exiflence, never meant to grow higher. A A medical traveller might fay, 'tis owing to undue bandages. a fplenetic one, to want of air-and an inquifitive traveller, to fortify the fyftem, may measure the height of their houses the narrowness of their streets, and in how few feet fquare in the fixth and seventh stories fuch numbers of the Bourgoific eat and fleep together; but I remember, Mr. Shandy the elder, who accounted for nothing like any body elfe, in fpeaking one evening of these matters, matters, averred, that children, like other ani mals, might be increased almoft to any fize, provided they came right into the world; but the mifery was, the citizens of Paris were so coop'd up, that they had not actually room. enough to get them-I did not call it getting any thing, faid he-'tis getting nothing-Nay, continued he, rifing in his argument, 'tis getting worfe than nothing, when all you have got, after twenty or five and twenty years of the tendereft care and moft nutritious aliment beftowed upon it, fhall not at laft be as high as my leg. Now, Mr. Shandy being very short, there could be nothing more faid upon it. As this is not a work of reasoning, I leave the folution as I found it, and content myself with the truth only of the remark, which is verified in every lane and by-lane of Paris. I was walking down that which leads from the Caroufal to the Palais Royal, and obferving a little boy in fome distress at the fide of the gutter, which ran down the middle of it, I took hold of his hand, and help'd him |