aristocratic visit.

As soon as the blind bookseller [Footnote: A pedlar who travelled
through the country, and sometimes picked up at sales curious books new
and old.] can find them for us, we shall read Miss Williams's _Letters._
I am glad we both prefer the same parts in Dr. Aikin's _Letters_: I
liked that on the choice of a wife, but I beg to except the word
_helper_, which is used so often and is associated with a helper in the
stables. Lovell dined with Mr. Aikin at Mr. Stewart's, at Edinburgh, and
has seen the Comte d'Artois, who he says has rather a silly face,
especially when it smiles. Sneyd is delighted with the four volumes of
_Evenings at Home_, which we have just got, and has pitched upon the
best stories, which he does not, like M. Dalambert, spoil in the
reading--"Perseverance against Fortune," "The Price of a Victory," and
"Capriole." We were reading an account of the pinna the other day, and
very much regretted that your pinna's brown silk tuft had been eaten by
the mice--what will they not eat?--they have eaten my thimble case! I am
sorry to say that, from these last accounts of the pinna and his cancer
friend, Dr. Darwin's beautiful description is more poetic than accurate.
The cancer is neither watchman nor market-woman to the pinna, nor yet
his friend: he has free ingress to his house, it is true, and is often
found there, but he does not visit on equal terms, or on a friendly
footing, for the moment the pinna gets him in he shuts the door and eats
him; or if he is not hungry, kills the poor shrimp and keeps him in the
house till the next day's dinner. I am sorry Dr. Darwin's story is not
true.


_Saturday Night._