THE

21

POSTHUMOUS PAPERS,

FACETIOUS AND FANCIFUL,

OF

A PERSON LATELY ABOUT TOWN.

"The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones."

SHAKSPEARE.

LONDON:

WILLIAM SAMS,

ROYAL LIBRARY, ST. JAMES'S STREET.

MDCCCXXVIII.

LONDON:

Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES,

Stamford Street.

PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.

Two or three days before the Author of the following Papers forsook this breathing world,' I made a morning call at his lodgings. He was alone, in grey dressing-gown and easy slippers, expatiating upon an egg and butter. He was glad to see me; and we chatted, pleasantly enough, upon how poor one friend was getting, how rich another-upon the last novel and the new play, till conversation, that small change for the gold of thought, being counted down, I rose to depart, lest the pleasant impressions I had received should be effaced. "Stay," he said, "a moment." "a moment." Here he assumed an important look uncommon to his features, and rising as readily as he could, (for my friend was fat,) he produced from his bureau a bundle of papers, carefully tied up, and with two or three preliminary hems, resumed his seat. "You smoke, I believe ?" he enquired. "Occasionally," I replied. " And

you

have doubtless, among your acquaintance, some young ladies who curl their hair o' nights ?""To the best of my knowledge, I have."-" These papers," he said, looking infinitely serious, and fumbling them about as Falstaff dabbled with the flowers ere he died," these papers-trifles as they are-were once the solace of many melancholy hours, in adverse days now gone and past, when I was, as a young gentleman should be, somewhat sentimental; walked much alone in the Temple gardens; admired the moon, but knew not what to say to her; wore a pale cheek, and a dejected look, instead of this sanguine face, of health's own purple hue; and cultivated the line of grace, in lieu of this circle of obesity-this rotundo of flesh !" As he wound up this period of his reminiscences, he surveyed himself with a humourous eye downwards, and smoothed the lower half of his waistcoat with complacent hands.

He resumed :-"I am now an altered man- -the same Work, but with corrections and considerable additions. Twenty years added to eighteen have taught me to live in the world, not out of it; to laugh with the world, not at it. To have learnt this is to have acquired something. Yes, if I sigh now, it is from shortness of