LUXURY, SENSUALITY, VOLUPTUOUSNESS, DEBAUCH. THESE words are often falfely used as fynonymous; for the fignification is most comprehenfive in the firft word, moft brutal in the fecond, foft in the third, and rotten in the fourth. For luxury only implies excefs in every thing from whence pleasure leaft alloyed by pain can be extracted; and 'twas in that fenfe Prior understood it, when he made his Solomon exclaim, The pow'r of wealth I try'd, And all the various LUXE of coftly pride. A man may be faid to revel in intellectual LUXURY, if he provides himself a magnificent library of the very choiceft books, bound with elegance, and of the most perfect editions. A fpacious gallery furnished with pictures of immense value, and yet not one unpleafing fubject touched, though the most famous mafters have been culled from; two great wild views from the hand of Salvator Rofa being alone permitted to roughen the faftidious delicacy of a collection whence martyrdoms and indecencies are excluded with equal care. A mufeum of natural rarities, ingenioufly placed and diligently brought together from various climates; and a menagerie of wide extent for living animals, that he may ftudy natural hiftory without the danger danger and fatigue of travelling. An ample park for maintenance of fuch creatures as being graminivorous will not offend each other; and proper food with ufeful and commodious fabricks provided in it, that fo they too may live in what they reckon LUXURY, and be tempted to continue the race, though in a country far diftant from their own. A lake of at least eight English miles in circumference for containing fish, and inviting its mafter to conftruct little yachts, &c. or ftudy the art of managing fhips, building small veffels, and fo forth. But if he riots in real intellectual LUXURY, he will above all things be careful to fix a grand obfervatory upon fuch an eminence as may command a wide horizon, filling the room with proper telefcopes, approximators, and all due implements of ftudy; the chamber under it to contain fome books upon fubjects connected with or immediately treating of thofe globes which adorn the upper ftory, that fo his knowledge of the heavenly bodies may be facilitated, and he may be fpared the trouble of retiring to his library for confulting aftronomical authors; while the closets there contain chiefly the costly coloured accounts of foreign and domeftic birds, ferpents, &c. with fearce engravings, drawings both of ancient and modern mafters-with prints innumerable, and all of fome peculiar properties to deferve a place in a collection fo eminent; leaving the planetarium, large orrery and qua drants in the obfervatory, to be confulted occafionally. The mufic room or banqueting house meantime is nearer hoine; and every inftrument is there provided for every performer, fhould his own be forgotten or injured: with large quantities of manuscript fongs, and elegant quartettos in fcore, that disappointment may never intrude, and push pleasure out of his doors who knows fo well to call and to detain her. For although we have not yet fpoken of his coins amidst this combination of literary ease and scientific elegance; yet muft they, united with cameos, medals and intaglios, be fuch as attract envy and admiration from those who beft understand the nature of fuch things:-while the flower-garden, phyfic-garden, hot-houses, green-house and confervatory fhall be conftructed on the completeft plan; that full fcope may be afforded to our LUXURIOUS fcholar's commendable researches into the new difcovered receffes of botany, the loves and maladies of plants, &c. and among thefe intellectual LUXURIES we will allow him that of refufing his neighbours admittance for the folace of his pride, or of admitting them for gratification of his vanity, juft as the humour fuits. And surely a man may effect all this by the mere force of a fortune not in thefe days accounted enormous, without the fmalleft deviation towards voLUPTUOUSNESS, every tendency to which he ftudioufly avoids; while inftead of saying with Sir Sir Epicure Mammon, « Down beds are too hard, mine fhall be blown up," our man of LUXURY fleeps on a flock mattress, and without fire too, till the fharp frofts fet in, when one large kennel coal keeps his chamber from excefs of cold, and leaves no scent behind:-for we must remember that he is a profeffed valetudinarian, and guards his precious health with most attentive abstinence from every kind of game, high difhes, fauces, &c. living chiefly if not wholly upon chicken fatted at the barn door only, never put up, and mutton from the mountains of Wales or ifland of Portland in its feafon; drinking no liquor except Spa or Seltzer water, coftly as wines, and imported by himself and agents with unremitted care. Thefe he indulges in; and as it has been long his fixed intention to remain always in a state of celibacy, he keeps a regular and handfome table for friends that come and stay a week with him by turns-but never longer at a time, left attachment on his part might breed familiarity on theirs, and contradiction, which ever offends him, might enfue. To avoid therefore all fuch intimacy, as could only produce tales of forrow in the foft companions, and in the rough perhaps fomewhat of independence in their air and manner fo difpleafing to his nerves, and fo likely to dif rurb his tranquillity, never more than eight, or fewer than fix gentlemen or ladies fit down with him at once; that number being juft fufficient to invite talk and yet preclude confi. dence, dence, freeing him at once from folitude and exertion. All this while SENSUALITY is methinks kept at an immeasurable distance. The physician, whom he daily fees and fees, that no temptation to neglect his truft may ever arise, recommends regular hours and temperance in. fleep, coarse linen for bed and body, and all winter time low fires, cold bathing, and flannel next the skin; and with these hardships, which some men undergo to purchase heaven, our LUXURIOUS gentleman is ready to comply, as death is what he dreads moft;-therefore goes not to London left he should fee or hear of it; keeps out of parliament for obvious reafons, befides that political debates would harass his mind too much,. and interrupt the peaceful tenour of his life. On the fame principle he never plays at cards higher than half-crown whift-all games having, as he justly observes, a tendency to ruffle a man's temper and agitate his fpirits for nothing; while dancing would heat his blood. Sports of the field are far too boisterous for fo delicate a frame, unless the ladies tempt him out two or three fine evenings during a long fummer, to take fome partridge with a net and fetting dog-an animal trained like his companions to apparent gaiety and real fubmiffion: but favourite creatures he refolves against as troublesome, and only looks over his birds and beafts in their aviaries and menagerie. His stable is not extenfive, and confifts only of eafy pads for his own riding, with choice of ex cellent |