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without thee would have remained dormant ; how many characters have been cut to pieces during the consummation of only one cup of Gunpowder! how much has a lady thought of herself before that cup was half consumed, tea! tea! tea! would be re-echoed among the rocks, scandal! scandal! scandal! Of all the luxurious beverages which have been introduced among us, tea is perhaps that which is in most general use; the washerwoman in England would die without her tea, the labourer when he cannot afford meat or soup always takes it for his dinner, and since the introduction of Temperance Societies, perhaps among the poorer class there is more tea than spirits consumed, even including that strange race of temperance beings, who sometimes hide their spirits in their tea. Every one remembers the anecdotes about Dr. Johnson, while enjoying his favourite beverage, and I believe literary men in general are strongly partial to tea; what a sight it must have been to have viewed one of Mrs. Montagu's BlueStocking Parties nearly a century ago, when the delicate and ancient fair, sipped hyson, quoted, and criticised; now discussing the quality of old China, and then the literary merits of an Essay, or a Poem. But things now-a-days are

greatly changed, scandal then did frequently rule the conversation, but it was chiefly used to pull down literary, not domestic reputation ; even Sir Benjamin Backbite in "The School for Scandal," becomes a bearable character, when he gives a pleasant tone to the whole tea table, merely through reciting a verse of his own composition on the beauty of "Lady Betty Curricle's ponies." Now at the tea-table especially in India, literary subjects are seldom or never discussed; an animated contest will ensue concerning some point in the articles of war, or on the shape of an epaulette, or a chaco, but not one word is heard concerning the history of the country in which they live; Orme and Mills, and Sir W. Jones, lie mouldering in the closets, neglected by those, to enlighten whom, the authors sacrificed many of the pleasures of their lives. But let me now give some remarks, concerning the history of tea. Tea was first made known in India, through some Arabian travellers, about 1000 years ago; alluding to those says Robertson in his "Historical Disquisition concerning ancient India." "They are the first who mention the celebrated manufacture of porcelain "among the Chinese," which, on account of its delicacy and transparency, they com

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pare to glass. They describe the tea tree, and the mode of using its leaves, and from the great revenue which was levied (as they inform us) from the consumption of it, tea seems to have been as universally the favourite beverage of the Chinese in the ninth century, as it is at present." In Dodsley's Annual Register for 1784 and 85, appear the following interesting observations concerning Tea. "Tea, the importation of which, at present, far exceeds that of any other production of the East, has not been in general use, in any country of Europe, a full century; and yet, during that short period, from some singular caprice of taste, or power of fashion, the infusion of a leaf brought from the furthest extremity of the earth, of which perhaps it is the highest praise to say that it is innoxious, has become almost a necessary of life in several parts of Europe, and the passion for it descends from the most elevated to the lowest orders in society. In 1785, it was computed that the whole quantity of tea imported into Europe from China was about 19 millions of pounds, of which it is conjectured that twelve millions were consumed in Great Britain and the dominions depending upon it." So much, for Tea! Surely this delicious article will soon become

cheaper, on account of our increased intercourse with China; it was Tea which in a great measure caused the American War in 1774, it is tea which causes Polyphilus lay down the pen to take a cup of it which has just been placed upon the table.

POLYPHILUS.

Thursday, March 14, 1844.

No. 32.

On Ambition.

Pleasures are ever in our hands or eyes,
And when in act they cease, in prospect rise;
Present to grasp, and future still to find,

The whole employ of body and of mind.

All spread their charms, but charm not all alike:
On different senses different objects strike;
Hence different passions more or less inflame,
As strong or weak, the organs of the frame;
And henee one master passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest."

Pope's Essay on Man.

There is no passion implanted in the soul of man, which holds forth to such a degree, the sublimity of his nature, as ambition; it is that passion which so distinguishes him from every other living thing, and which causes him to explore the regions of science, where his knowledge is only excelled by divinity; of course I speak of that sort of ambition which is governed by the reins of virtue, like that of Sir Isaac Newton, whose ambition was at length gratified by the discovery of the gravitation of the heavens. Of ambition says Burke "It is this passion that drives men to all the ways we see in use of signalizing themselves, and that tends to make what

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