When my curiosity was not attach'd to the pursuit of any particular adventure, I frequently stepp'd, for the sake of amusement, into one or other of our great coffee-houses; and, indeed, seldom return'd from any of them without bringing home something worthy of my very serious reflections afterwards.

These places, I think, may with propriety enough to be call'd the world in miniature, as they present you with some part of almost every thing that is in it; – the variety of company and of humours one meets there, fill the mind with an agreeable medley, which, when separated and digested by meditation, enlarges the understanding, and gives us ideas which otherwise might perhaps be for ever strangers to us.

The affairs of the army, the navy, the senate-house, the council-board, are here freely discuss'd, and censur'd or approv'd according to the different interests or inclination of the speakers; – our stock at home, our colonies abroad, our commerce with our neighbours, our trade among ourselves, with deaths, births, marriages, and intrigues, are promiscuously treated on; – the courtier, the patriot, the man of business, and the man of pleasure, talk every one on matters relating to his own sphere, and leave you uninformed of nothing.

But it affords a good deal of diversion to a curious observer, when there happens to be in company some country 'squire, who perhaps sees the town but once in half seven years, and knows nothing of what is done in it but what he reads in those few news papers which are permitted to be sent down to the village where he lives; – how he stares, and gapes with his mouth wide open as if he would swallow all he hears, and every now and then asks, – How can this be? – and – How can that be? – and express his honest wonder on being told things which, indeed, without knowing, would scarcely be believed by persons brought up in less simplicity.