"I had no umbrella! They were little used, and very dear. There were no
waterproof hats, and _my_ hat has often been reduced by rains into its
primitive pulp.
"I could not keep my smallclothes in their proper place, for braces were
unknown. If I had the gout, there was no colchicum. If I was bilious, there
was no calomel. If I was attacked by ague, there was no quinine. There were
filthy coffee-houses instead of elegant clubs. Game could not be bought.
Quarrels about Uncommuted Tithes were endless. The corruptions of
Parliament, before Reform, infamous. There were no banks to receive the
savings of the poor. The Poor Laws were gradually sapping the vitals of the
country; and, whatever miseries I suffered, I had no post to whisk my
complaints for a single penny to the remotest corners of the empire; and
yet, in spite of all these privations, I lived on quietly, and am now
ashamed that I was not more discontented, and utterly surprised that all
these changes and inventions did not occur two centuries ago.
"I forgot to add that, as the basket of stage-coaches, in which luggage was
then carried, had no springs, your clothes were rubbed all to pieces; and
that even in the best society one third of the gentlemen at least were
always drunk."--"_Modern Changes" in the Collected Works_.
APPENDIX D
"The longer I live, the more I am convinced that the apothecary is of more
importance than Seneca; and that half the unhappiness in the world proceeds
from little stoppages, from a duct choked up, from food pressing in the
wrong place, from a vext duodenum, or an agitated pylorus.
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