[5] When Here Before, Captain Cook Could Not Obtain This Very Singular Article; But, At This Time, According To Mr G.F., Not Less Than Ten Complete Mourning-Dresses Were Purchased By Different Persons, Who Brought Them To England.

Captain Cook gave one to the British Museum, and Mr Forster another to the University of Oxford.

A sailor sold a third on his return home for twenty-five guineas, but to whom Mr G.F. does not mention. - E.

[6] It is still more probable that both reasons concur. The higher orders, besides, it is certain, were far enough from being disinclined to exhibit their ingenuity in pilfering. We have seen instances of this sort before. Mr G.F. relates one of some interest, as presented in the king's own sister, a woman about twenty-seven years old, and who possessed great authority over her sex. Her high rank did not elevate her above some very vulgar propensities, of which, covetousness, though abundantly conspicuous, was not the most considerable. The only apology Mr G.F. makes for her, has little specific excellence to commend it. "In a country," says he, "where the impulses of nature are followed without restraint, it would be extraordinary if an exception should be made, and still more so, if it should be confined to those who are accustomed to have their will in most other respects. The passions of mankind are similar every where; the same instincts are active in the slave and the prince; consequently the history of their effects must ever be the same in every country." It is both mortifying and consolatory to think, that the utmost height to which ambition may aspire, will not exempt one from the polluting agency of "mire and dirt." Death, we see, is not the only leveller in the world.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 567 of 885
Words from 153197 to 153500 of 239428