Genre:

Miscellaneous, Reminiscences

Subjects:

Quackery, Lecturing, Education, Libraries, Museums, Morality

    Describes the city of London in 1769 as giving 'an equal chance to every trade and profession; it is a place where the meanest of employments may become the source of wealth; and where chimney sweepers, old-clothes-men, hair-dressers, tailors, and quacks, sometimes acquire affluence, and frequently enjoy the privileges of being ranked in the class of gentlemen' (481). Later observes: 'London is also a place very advantageous to the student in his pursuits of various branches of science; where, by attending on different Professors, conversing with men of genius, learning, and experience, consulting libraries, visiting museums, exhibitions, &c. he may enjoy the means of making the most desirable progress in his studies, if he have sufficient resolution to escape the dangerous dissipations of the place' (482).