Salmagundi; or, The whim-whams and opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, esq. [pseud.] and others. By William Irving, James Kirke Paulding and Washington Irving. Printed from the original ed., with a preface and notes by Evert A. Duyckinck.

RETROSPECT. 247
To converse with the shades of those friends of my love,
Long gather'd in peace to the angels above.
In my rambles through life should I meet with annoy,
From the bold, beardless stripling-the turbid pert boy —
One reared in the mode lately reckon'd genteel,
Which, neglecting the head, aims to perfect the heel;
Which completes the sweet fopling while yet in his teens,
And fits him for fashion's light changeable scenes;
Proclaims him a man to the near and the far,
Can he dance a cotillon or smoke a segar;
And though brainless and vapid as vapid can be,
To routs and to parties pronounces him free:
Oh, I think on the beaux that existed of yore,
On those rules of the ton that exist now no more!
I recall with delight how each yonker at first
In the cradle of science and virtue was nursed:
-How the graces of person and graces of mind,
The polish of learning and fashion combined,
Till softened in manners and strengthened in head,
By the classical lore of the living and dead,
Matured in his person till manly in size,
He then was presented a beau to our eyes!
My nieces of late have made frequent complaint
That they suffer vexation and painful constraint,
By having their circles too often distrest
By some three or four goslings just fledged from the nest,
Who, propp'd by the credit their fathers sustain,
Alike tender in years and in person and brain,
But plenteously stock'd with that substitute, brass,
For true wits and critics would anxiously pass.
They complain of that empty sarcastical slang,