I am much indebted to you for the introduction to your friend G---. He
is one of us; or rather, he moves in an eccentric sphere of his own,
which crosses, I believe, almost all the orbits of all the classed and
classifiable systems of London. I found him exactly what you described;
and we were on the frankest footing of old friends in the course of the
first quarter of an hour. He did me the honour to fancy that I belonged,
as a matter of course, to some one of the literary fraternities of
Edinburgh, and that I would be curious to see the associations of the
learned here. What he said respecting them was highly characteristic of
the man. "They are," said he, "the dullest things possible. On my
return from abroad, I visited them all, expecting to find something of
that easy disengaged mind which constitutes the charm of those of France
and Italy. But in London, among those who have a character to keep up,
there is such a vigilant circumspection, that I should as soon expect to
find nature in the ballets of the Opera-house, as genius at the
established haunts of authors, artists, and men of science. Bankes
gives, I suppose officially, a public breakfast weekly, and opens his
house for conversations on the Sundays. I found at his breakfasts, tea
and coffee, with hot rolls, and men of celebrity afraid to speak. At the
conversations, there was something even worse. A few plausible talking
fellows created a buzz in the room, and the merits of some paltry
nick-nack of mechanism or science was discussed. The party consisted
undoubtedly of the most eminent men of their respective lines in the
world; but they were each and all so apprehensive of having their ideas
purloined, that they took the most guarded care never to speak of
anything that they deemed of the slightest consequence, or to hazard an
opinion that might be called in question. The man who either wishes to
augment his knowledge, or to pass his time agreeably, will never expose
himself to a repetition of the fastidious exhibitions of engineers and
artists who have their talents at market. But such things are among the
curiosities of London; and if you have any inclination to undergo the
initiating mortification of being treated as a young man who may be
likely to interfere with their professional interests, I can easily get
you introduced."
I do not know whether to ascribe these strictures of your friend to
humour or misanthropy; but they were said without bitterness; indeed so
much as matters of course, that, at the moment, I could not but feel
persuaded they were just. I spoke of them to T---, who says, that
undoubtedly G---'s account of the exhibitions is true in substance, but
that it is his own sharp-sightedness which causes him to see them so
offensively; for that ninety-nine out of the hundred in the world would
deem an evening spent at the conversations of Sir Joseph Bankes a very
high intellectual treat.