Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One: The ‘Mental Exercises’: List of Members and Scribes’ Rota
- Members’ Agreement
- On Study
- On Honour
- On Argument
- On Imagination and Judgement
- Hope
- On General Character
- On the Pleasures and Uses of the Imagination
- On Politeness
- Agis
- The Charms of Sleep
- Friendship & Charity
- An Ode to the PASS
- Garreteer's Epistle
- A Mathematical Love Letter
- On seeing a Rose in the Possession of a Lady at the SMHPABNASL
- On Courage
- Irritus to the Manager
- Marriage is Honourable in All
- Friendship
- On Mind and the Duty of Improving It
- A word for Page 73
- On the Early Introduction of Females to Society
- Memoranda
- On prematurely Forming Opinion of Characters
- On the Death of the Princess Charlotte
- Affectation
- On Conscious Approbation
- The Origin of a Critic—A Fable
- Reflections on Death
- On Avarice
- On Tradesmen
- On Laws
- On the Changes of the mind
- On Marriage
- On Calumny
- Letter to the Secretary
- Enigma
- On Marriage
- Effeminacy & Luxury
- A Brother's Letter to Mr. Deeble
- Junius & Tullia
- A Ramble to Melincourt
- On Triflers
- 139th Psalm
- Infancy
- At a Village on the Dunchurch Road
- Part Two: Contexts: Faraday and Self–Education Faraday, from the Correspondence (1812–16)
- Faraday, from Observations on the Means of Obtaining Knowledge (1817)
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on the Inertia of the Mind’ (1818)
- Faraday's indexes to eighteenth-century periodicals
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on Mental Education’ (1854)
- The Improvement of the Mind: Isaac Watts, from The Improvement of the Mind (1741)
- Samuel Johnson, from The Rambler (1751)
- Thomas Williams, from The Moral Tendencies of Knowledge (1815)
- Isaac Taylor, from Self-Cultivation Recommended: Or, Hints to a Youth Leaving School (1817)
- From The Black Dwarf (1819)
- Mary Shelley, from Frankenstein (1818)
- Henry Brougham, from Practical Observations upon the Education of the People (1825)
- The Pleasures of the Imagination: Joseph Addison, from The Spectator (1712)
- Mark Akenside, from The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
- Index
At a Village on the Dunchurch Road
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One: The ‘Mental Exercises’: List of Members and Scribes’ Rota
- Members’ Agreement
- On Study
- On Honour
- On Argument
- On Imagination and Judgement
- Hope
- On General Character
- On the Pleasures and Uses of the Imagination
- On Politeness
- Agis
- The Charms of Sleep
- Friendship & Charity
- An Ode to the PASS
- Garreteer's Epistle
- A Mathematical Love Letter
- On seeing a Rose in the Possession of a Lady at the SMHPABNASL
- On Courage
- Irritus to the Manager
- Marriage is Honourable in All
- Friendship
- On Mind and the Duty of Improving It
- A word for Page 73
- On the Early Introduction of Females to Society
- Memoranda
- On prematurely Forming Opinion of Characters
- On the Death of the Princess Charlotte
- Affectation
- On Conscious Approbation
- The Origin of a Critic—A Fable
- Reflections on Death
- On Avarice
- On Tradesmen
- On Laws
- On the Changes of the mind
- On Marriage
- On Calumny
- Letter to the Secretary
- Enigma
- On Marriage
- Effeminacy & Luxury
- A Brother's Letter to Mr. Deeble
- Junius & Tullia
- A Ramble to Melincourt
- On Triflers
- 139th Psalm
- Infancy
- At a Village on the Dunchurch Road
- Part Two: Contexts: Faraday and Self–Education Faraday, from the Correspondence (1812–16)
- Faraday, from Observations on the Means of Obtaining Knowledge (1817)
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on the Inertia of the Mind’ (1818)
- Faraday's indexes to eighteenth-century periodicals
- Faraday, from ‘Observations on Mental Education’ (1854)
- The Improvement of the Mind: Isaac Watts, from The Improvement of the Mind (1741)
- Samuel Johnson, from The Rambler (1751)
- Thomas Williams, from The Moral Tendencies of Knowledge (1815)
- Isaac Taylor, from Self-Cultivation Recommended: Or, Hints to a Youth Leaving School (1817)
- From The Black Dwarf (1819)
- Mary Shelley, from Frankenstein (1818)
- Henry Brougham, from Practical Observations upon the Education of the People (1825)
- The Pleasures of the Imagination: Joseph Addison, from The Spectator (1712)
- Mark Akenside, from The Pleasures of the Imagination (1744)
- Index
Summary
At a Village on the Dunchurch Road,
Between two well-known towns
There lives a man—deny't who can:
With kindness he abounds.
His house, his fare, and fireside,
Are open to the weary—
The rich, the poor, the destitute—
He makes them all like cheery.
’Tis said that Swift, St. Patrick's Dean,
That satirical old sinner,
When on his journey to the North,
Here stopp'd, and took his dinner.
The sign by which the house was known
Was called the Three Crosses;
But not I trow because mine host
Had met with many losses.
However, be that as it may,
The present Landlord's thrifty;
Though in the house he has not liv'd
Years counting up to fifty.
It happen'd on a busy day,
Mine Host was in the cellar,
When Swift began to rant and rave,
And like a calf did bellow.
“Why am I thus to sit alone,
“By Host and Hostess slighted;
“If this is all respect you show,
“I'll have your house endicted.
“Dean Swift's my name; and, Madam, you
“Should first wait on your betters;
“Before you serve the common folk,
“Tend well the Man of Letters.
“And when a person of my rank
“Graces the country round,
“In courtesy and humble mien
“You always should abound.
“Go where I may, my Cloth commands
“Respect the most profound.”
But Swift soon found the angry Dame
Was not to be so humble;
For, in her rage, she told the Dean,
To quit, or cease to grumble.
“Odds bodikins!” mine Hostess adds,
“The Dean has lost his reason!
“To speak or look but at his Grace,
“He'd make you think was treason!”
The Landlord from below had heard
A bustle and disorder;
Quickly ascended to the bar,
To put his dame in order.
Swift's ready wit soon subject found,
And taught the dame a lesson,
That from his lips not to expect
A prayer, or yet a blessing
Says Swift, “upon your casement, there,
“A legacy I leave you:
“’Tis to your wife I do allude;
“Let not the subject grieve you;
“For there you'll find a ready plan,
“To reckon up your losses;
“Though, by my faith, in doing so
“You'll sure increase your Crosses.”
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- Michael Faraday’s Mental ExercisesAn Artisan Essay-Circle in Regency London, pp. 170 - 173Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2008