I was born to a small hereditary estate, which, according to the tradition of the village where it lies, was bounded by the same hedges and ditches in William the Conqueror's time that it is at present, and has been delivered down from father to son, whole and entire, without the loss or acquisition of a single field or meadow, during the of six hundred years. There runs a story in space the family, that when my mother was gone with child of me about three months, she dreamt that she was brought to bed of a judge. Whether this might proceed from a law-suit which was then depending in the family, or my father's being a justice of the peace, I cannot determine; for I am not so vain as to think it presaged any dignity that I should arrive at in my future life, though that was the interpretation which the neighbourhood put upon it. The gravity of my behaviour at my very first appearance in the world, and at the time that I sucked, seemed to favour my mother's dream: for, as she has often told me, I threw away my rattle before I was two months old, and would not make use of my coral until they had taken away the bells from it.

As for the rest of my infancy, there being nothing in it remarkable, I shall pass it over in silence. I find, that during my nonage, I had the reputation of a very sullen youth, but was always a favourite of my schoolmaster, who used to say,

Mes ancêtres m'ont laissé un petit bien-fonds, qui, suivant la tradition du village où il est situé, étoit environné, du temps de Guillaume-le-Conquérant, des mêmes haies et des mêmes fossés qui l'environnent aujourd'hui, et qui a passé, de père en fils, tout entier, sans qu'on y ait ajouté ou qu'on en ait retranché un pouce de terre, pendant l'espace de six cents ans. On raconte dans ma famille que ma mère, lorsqu'elle était enceinte de moi d'environ trois mois, rêva qu'elle était accouchée d'un juge. Si cette pensée lui vint à l'occasion d'un procès que mon père avait alors, ou de ce qu'il était luimême juge de paix, c'est ce que je ne saurais décider; mais je n'ai pas la vanité de croire que cela me présageât une dignité dans la robe, quoique ce fût l'explication que tout le voisinage en donna. Mon air grave et sérieux, à l'instant où je vis le jour, et pendant tout le temps que je fus à la mamelle, sembla confirmer le rêve de ma mère; car je lui ai souvent ouï dire qu'ayant à peine deux mois, je ne pouvais souffrir mon jouet, ni me servir du morceau de corail qu'il y avait au bout, à moins qu'on n'en ôtât les grelots.

Pour le reste de mon enfance, il n'y eut rien de remarquable; ainsi je n'en parlerai pas. Durant mon bas âge, on trouva que j'étais d'une humeur fort sombre; ce qui n'empêchait pas que je ne fusse toujours le favori de mon maître, qui avait

'that my parts were solid, and would wear well.' I had not been long at the University, before I distinguished myself by a most profound silence; for during the space of eight years, excepting in the public exercises of the college, I scarce uttered the quantity of an hundred words; and indeed do not remember that I ever spoke three sentences together in my whole life. Whilst I was in this learned body, I applied myself with so much diligence to my studies, that there are very few celebrated books, either in the learned or the modern tongues, which I am not acquainted with.

Upon the death of my father, I was resolved to travel into foreign countries, and therefore left the University, with the character of an odd unaccountable fellow, that had a great deal of learning, if I would but shew it. An insatiable thirst after knowledge carried me into all the countries of Europe, in which there was any thing new or strange to be seen; nay, to such a degree was my curiosity raised, that having read the controversies of some great men concerning the antiquities of Egypt, I made a voyage to Grand Cairo, on purpose to take the measure of a pyramid; and as soon as I had set myself right in that particular, returned to my native country with great satisfaction.

I have passed my latter years in this city, where 1 am frequently seen in most public places, though

coutume de dire que j'avais du solide, et que mes talens seraient durables. On ne m'eut pas plus tôt envoyé à l'Université, que je m'y distinguai par un très-profond silence; car, dans le cours de huit années, si l'on en excepte les exercices publics, je lâchai à peine une centaine de mots, et je ne crois pas avoir jamais en ma vie prononcé trois périodes de suite. Quoi qu'il en soit, je m'appliquai avec tant d'ardeur à l'étude, pendant que je fus au milieu de cet illustre corps, que dans les langues anciennes ou modernes il y a très-peu de bons livres que je ne connaisse.

Après la mort de mon père, je formai le dessein de voyager en pays étranger. C'est pourquoi je sortis de l'Université, avec la réputation d'un homme bizarre, qui ne manquait pas de savoir, mais qui ne voulait pas le découvrir. L'ardeur insatiable que j'avais pour acquérir tous les jours de nouvelles connaissances, me fit parcourir tous les pays de l'Europe, où il y avait quelque chose de curieux ou d'extraordinaire à voir. Ma curiosité alla même si loin, qu'après avoir lu les disputes de quelques savans sur les antiquités de l'Egypte, je fis un voyage exprès au Grand-Caire pour y mesurer une pyramide; et, aussitôt que j'eus redressé mes idées là-dessus, je retournai dans ma patrie avec la plus grande satisfaction.

Il y a déjà quelques années que je réside à Londres, où l'on me voit souvent dans les endroits

there are not above half-a-dozen of my select friends that know me; of whom my next paper shall give a more particular account. There is no place of general resort wherein I do not often make my appearance; sometimes I am seen thrusting my head into a round of politicians at Will's, and listening with great attention to the narratives that are made in those little circular audiences. Sometimes I smoke a pipe at Child's, and while I seem attentive to nothing but the Postman, overhear the conversation of every table in the room. I appear on Sunday nights at St. James's coffee-house, and sometimes join the little committee of politics in the inner-room, as one who comes there to hear and improve. My face is likewise very well known at the Grecian, the Cocoa-tree, and in the theatres both of Drury-lane and the Hay-market. I have been taken for a merchant upon the exchange for above these ten years, and sometimes pass for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers at Jonathan's. In short, wherever I see a cluster of people, I always mix with them, though I never open my lips but in my own club.

Thus I live in the world rather as a spectator of mankind than as one of the species, by which means I have made myself a speculative statesman, soldier, merchant, and artisan, without ever med