of which, the text might be freed from several
corruptions, if this age of barbarity had any claim to
such favours from him.

Many were admitted into this society as inferior
members, because they had collected old prints and
neglected pamphlets, or possessed some fragment
of antiquity, as the seal of an ancient corporation, the
charter of a religious house, the genealogy of a family
extinct, or a letter written in the reign of Elizabeth.

Every one of these virtuosos looked on all his
associates as wretches of depraved taste and narrow
notions. Their conversation was, therefore, fretful
and waspish, their behaviour brutal, their merriment
bluntly sarcastick, and their seriousness gloomy and
suspicious. They were totally ignorant of all that
passes, or has lately passed, in the world; unable to
discuss any question of religious, political, or military
knowledge; equally strangers to science and politer
learning, and without any wish to improve their
minds, or any other pleasure than that of displaying
rarities, of which they would not suffer others to
make the proper use.

Hirsutus graciously informed me, that the number
of their society was limited, but that I might
sometimes attend as an auditor. I was pleased to
find myself in no danger of an honour, which I could
not have willingly accepted, nor gracefully refused,