Page:Modern Literature Volume 3 (1804).djvu/79

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from serious concerns, which chiefly distinguishes Bath, is peculiarly conducive to the custom of either the gaming-house or the conventicle, as gallantry reigns there as well as in other places. These pastimes, particularly the itinerant assemblages, are extremely conducive to gallantry. Indeed, if Ovid, when he wrote his "Treatise on the Art of Love," had been acquainted with Methodism, instead of directing young bucks, that might be in quest of a mistress, to the Circus and Theatre, he would have sent them to the Tabernacle; the former, as he acknowledges, might fail even in the warm latitudes of Italy, but the latter is a sure repository, in the most northern parts of Britain[1]. But to return from*

  1. See Missionary Travels and Adventures through Scotland, published in 1799 by James Haldane and Co. in their Expedition to detach