O MEPHISTOPHILES IN ENGLAND; OR, THE CONFESSIONS OF A PRIME MINISTER. "Ful many a man hath he begiled er this, CHAUCER. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. PHILADELPHIA: CAREY, LEA AND BLANCHARD. MEPHISTOPHILES IN ENGLAND. BOOK THE THIRD-Continued. CHAPTER V. Town versus the country: an argument in which all the interesting peculiarities of streets and fields are separately considered, and their advantages fairly discussed, to the great profit of those who wish to give this subject a full and impartial investigation. THE observations of Mephistophiles on the subject of cookery were brought to a conclusion; and I became attentive to the conversation of my companions, who were arguing upon the advantages and peculiarities of a town and a country residence. "There is no place," said Mephistophiles, "in which human nature can be studied with so much advantage as a great city, for it contains almost every variety of character into which mankind are capable of being divided. In country villages, and places remote from general intercourse with the world, although good and bad may be found mingled together as they are at all times, in the proportion of one halfpenny worth of bread to such a prodigious quantity of sack,' they do not contain that diversity of either which may be discovered in densely populated districts. Some silly people are much influenced by what they call the beauty of the objects among which they move and breathe, and consider the fields, the streams, the flowers, and the stars, as ties formed to bind their hearts in loving bondage with their homes. Stuff!" 66 'Exactly," observed the noble parasite. "Your highness has expressed the very meaning of my thoughts; but in a manner much more powerful and eloquent than I could |