graceless form and dwarfish stature;
By few approved, and few approving,
Extreme in hating and in loving;
Abhorring all whom I dislike,
Adoring who my fancy strike;
In forming judgments never long,
And for the most part judging wrong;
In friendship firm, but still believing
Others are treacherous and deceiving,
And thinking in the present æra
That friendship is a pure chimæra:
More passionate no creature living,
Proud, obstinate, and unforgiving,
But yet for those who kindness show
Ready through fire and smoke to go.
 
Again, should it be asked your page,
»Pray, what may be the author's age?«
Your faults, no doubt, will make it clear,
I scarce have seen my twentieth year,
Which passed, Kind Reader, on my word
While England's throne held George the Third.
 
Now, then, you venturous course pursue.
Go, my delight! dear book, adieu! - M.G.L.
 
HAGUE, Oct. 28th, 1794
 

                                   Chapter I

 - Lord Angelo is precise;
 Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
 That his blood flows, or that his appetite
 Is more to bread than stone.
                                                            Measure for Measure.
 
Scarcely had the abbey-bell tolled for five minutes, and already was the church
of the Capuchins thronged with auditors. Do not encourage the idea, that the
crowd was assembled either from motives of piety or thirst of information. But
very few were influenced by those reasons; and in a city where superstition
reigns with such despotic sway as in Madrid, to seek for true devotion would be
a fruitless attempt. The audience now assembled in the Capuchin church was
collected by various causes, but all of them were foreign to the ostensible
motive. The women came to show themselves, the men to see the women: some were
attracted by curiosity to hear an orator so celebrated; some came, because they
had no better means of employing their time till the play began; some, from
being assured that it would be impossible to find places in the church; and one
half of Madrid was brought thither by expecting to meet the other half. The only
persons truly anxious to hear the preacher, were a few antiquated devotees, and
half a dozen rival orators, determined to find fault with and ridicule the
discourse. As to the remainder of the audience, the sermon might have been
omitted altogether, certainly without their being disappointed, and very
probably without their perceiving the omission.
    Whatever was the occasion, it is at least certain, that the Capuchin church
had never witnessed a more numerous assembly. Every