This is the Humour of a great many _Travelling Men_, as well as
_Travelling Apes_: Men that will be Talking of Places that they never
Saw, and of Persons that they never Heard of. Their Whole Conversation
is made up of Councels and Intrigues, Reasons of State, Embassies, and
Negotiations, that they never were skill’d in at all. Neither Men, Books
nor Sciences come Amiss to ’em: And after All This Extravagant Bustle,
a Gay Coat and a Grimace is the Upshot of what they can Pretend to.
These _Phantomes_ however are Sometimes taken for Men, and born up by
the Wellmeaning Ignorant Common People, as the _Ape_ was here by the
_Dolphin_; till in the Conclusion, their Sillyness lays them Open, Their
Supporters give them the Slip, and down they Drop and Vanish. How many of
these Empty Chattering Fops have we daily put upon us, for Men of Sense
and Bus’ness; that with _Balzack’s Prime Minister_, shall spend ye Eight
and Forty Hours together Poring over a Map, to look for _Aristocracy_ and
_Democracy_, instead of _Croatia_ and _Dalmatia_, and take the Name of a
Country for a Form of Government; Without any more ado, we have _Apes_ in
History as well as in Fiction, and not a Rush matter whether they go on
Four Legs, or on Two.