CHAPTER XXXIII.
which may pass for whatever it may prove to be worth.
But ere be given the rather grave story of Charlemont, a reply must in civility be made to a certain voice
which methinks I hear, that, in view of past chapters,
and more particularly the last, where certain antics appear, exclaims: How unreal all this is! Who did ever
dress or act like your cosmopolitan? And who, it
might be returned, did ever dress or act like harlequin?
Strange, that in a work of amusement, this severe fidelity to real life should be exacted by any one, who, by taking up such a work, sufficiently shows that he is not unwilling to drop real life, and turn, for a time, to something different. Yes, it is, indeed, strange that any one should clamor for the thing he is weary of; that any one, who, for any cause, finds real life dull, should yet demand of him who is to divert his attention from it, that he should be true to that dullness.
There is another class, and with this class we side, who sit down to a work of amusement tolerantly as they sit at a play, and with much the same expectations and feelings. They look that fancy shall evoke scenes different from those of the same old crowd round the custom-
