| Citation |
PG-P.757.003
13 Jan 1757:11 (1464)
From the Connoisseur, No. 131. No other disposition or turn
of mind so totally unfits a men for all the social offices
of life as indolence. . . [16 lines]
It should be considered that nature did not bring us into
the world in a state of perfection, but has left us in a
capacity of improvement, which should seem to intimate that
we should labour to render ourselves excellent. . . [12
lines] Being at Sadler's Wells a few nights ago, I could not
but admire the surprizing feats of activity there exhibited,
and at the same time reflected what incredible pains and
labour it must have cost the performers to arrive at the act
of writhing their bodies into such various and unnatural
contortions. But I was most taken with the ingenious
artist, who after fixing two bells to each foot, and same
number of each hand, with great propriety placing a cap and
bells on his head, played several tunes, and went through as
regular triple peals and Bob Majors, as the boys at Christ
Church hospital; all which he effected by the due jerking of
his arms and legs, and nodding his head backward and
forward. If this artist had taken equal pains to employ his
head in another way, he might perhaps have been as deep a
proficient in numbers as Jededia Buxton, or at least a
tolerable modern rhimer, of which he is now no bad emblem:
And if our fine ladies would use equal diligence , they
might fashion their minds as successfully as Madam Catharina
distorts her body.
|