To suit themselves to the ordinary level of society, they become either insipid or satirical; they mix too much water, or apply cayenne pepper to the wine of their conversation: hence that mind which, apart from the artificial atmosphere of the busy world, might have grown into strength and beauty, becomes like some poor child nurtured in the unhealthy precincts of a dense and crowded city,--diseased, stunted, rickety, and incapable of distinguishing itself from its fellows.
As clever people cannot elevate the mass with which they herd to their own level, they are apt to sink to theirs; and persons with talents that might have served for nobler purposes are suffered to degenerate into _diseurs de bons mots_ and _raconteurs de societe_, content with the paltry distinction of being considered amusing.

How many such have I encountered, satisfied with being pigmies, who might have grown to be giants, but who were consoled by the reflection that in that world in which their sole aim is to shine, pigmies are more tolerated than giants, as people prefer looking down to looking up! Lord Allen and Sir Andrew Barnard dined here yesterday.

They appear to enter into the gaiety of Paris with great zest, go the round of the theatres, dine at all the celebrated _restaurateurs_, mix enough in the _beau monde_ to be enabled to observe the difference between the Parisian and London one, and will, at the expiration of the term assigned to their _sejour_ here, return to England well satisfied with their trip and with themselves.
Lord A---- has tasted all the _nouveaux plats a la mode_, for at Paris new dishes are as frequently invented as new bonnets or caps; and the proficiency in the culinary art which he has acquired will render him an oracle at his clubs, until the more recent arrival of some other epicurean from the French capital deposes his brief sovereignty.
But it is not in the culinary art alone that Lord Allen evinces his good taste, for no one is a better judge of all that constitutes the _agremens_ of life, or more _au fait_ of the [* omitted word ?] of contributing to them.
Sir A.B----, as devoted as ever to music, has heard all the new, and finds that the old, like old friends, loses nothing by comparison.

It is pleasant to see that the advance of years impairs not the taste for a refined and innocent pleasure..