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you but for your own good), I would recommend "it to you to borrow the whole sum from that other "friend; and then one note will serve for all, you "know.

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Poverty now began to come fast upon me; yet "instead of growing more provident or cautious as "I grew poor, I became every day more indolent "and simple. A friend was arrested for fifty pounds; "I was unable to extricate him except by becoming "his bail. When at liberty he fled from his creditors, and left me to take his place: in prison I ex"pected greater satisfactions than I had enjoyed at large. I hoped to converse with men in this new "world simple and believing like myself, but I "found them as cunning and as cautious as those "in the world I had left behind. They spunged up "my money whilst it lasted, borrowed my coals, " and never paid for them, and cheated me when I played at cribbage. All this was done because "they believed me to be very good-natured, and "knew that I had no harm in me.

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Upon my first entrance into this mansion, "which is to some the abode of despair, I felt "no sensations different from those I experienced "abroad. I was now on one side the door, and "those who were unconfined were on the other: "this was all the difference between us. At first "indeed I felt some uneasiness, in considering how "I should be able to provide this week for the wants "of the week ensuing; but after some time, if I "found myself sure of eating one day, I never "troubled my head how I was to be supplied ano"ther. I seized every precarious meal with the "utmost good-humour; indulged no rants of spleen 66 at my situation; never called down Heaven and "all the stars to behold me dining upon an halfpenny worth of radishes; my very companions "were taught to believe that I liked sallad better

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"than

“than mutton. I Lecontented & self with thinking, "that all my life & ethereat white bread or "brown; considered that a that happened was “best: langbed when I was not in pain, took the "world as it went, and read Tacitus often, for "want of more books and on any.

!

“How long I midt have continued in this torpid "state of simplicity I candot tell, had I not been "rouzed by seeing an old acquaintance, whom I "knew to be a prudent blockhead, preferred to a

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place in the government. I now found that I "had pursued a wrong track, and that the true way "of being able to relieve others, was first to aim at "independence myself; my immediate care, there"fore, wasto leave my present habitation, and make "an entire reformation in my conduct and beha"viour. For a free, open, undesigning deport“ment, I put on that of closeness, prudence, and "economy. One of the most heroic actions I ever performed, and for which I shall praise myself as

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long as I live, was the refusing half-a-crown to "an old acquaintance, at the time when he wanted "it, and I had it to spare; for this alone I deserve "to be decreed an ovation.

"I now therefore pursued a course of uninter"rupted frugality, seldom wanted a dinner, and "was consequently invited to twenty. I soon be"gan to get the character of a saving hunks that "had money, and insensibly grew into esteem. "Neighbours have asked my advice in the disposal "of their daughters; and I have always taken care "not to give any. I have contracted a friendship "with an alderman, only by observing, that if we "take a farthing from a thousand pounds, it will "be a thousand pounds no longer. I have been in"vited to a pawnbroker's table, by pretending to "hate gravy; and am now actually upon treaty of "marriage with a rich widow, for only having ob

"served

"served that the bread was rising. If ever I am "asked a question, whether I know it or not, in"stead of answering, I only smile and look wise. "If a charity is proposed, I go about with the hat, "but put nothing in myself. If a wretch solicits my "pity, I observe that the world is filled with im"postors, and take a certain method of not being "deceived, by never relieving. In short, I now "find the truest way of finding esteem even from "the indigent, is to give away nothing, and thus have "much in our power to give.'

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LETTER XXVII.

LATELY in

TO THE SAME.

company with my friend in black, whose conversation is now both my amusement and instruction, I could not avoid observing the great numbers of old bachelors and maiden ladies with

which this city seems to be over run. Sure marriage, said I, is not sufficiently encouraged, or we should never behold such crowds of battered beaux and decayed coquets still attempting to drive a trade they have been so long unfit for, and swarming upon the gaiety of the age. I behold an old bachelor in the most contemptible light, as an animal that lives upon the common stock without contributing his share: he is a beast of prey, and the laws should make use of as many stratagems, and as much force to drive the reluctant savage into the toils, as the Indians when they hunt the rhinoceros. The mob should be permitted to hallo after him, boys might

play

play tricks on him with impunity, every well-bred company should laugh at him, and if, when turned of sixty, he offered to make love, his mistress might spit in his face, or, what would be perhaps a greater punishment, should fairly grant the favour.

nor

As for old maids, continued I, they should not be treated with so much severity, because I suppose none would be so if they could. No lady in her senses would choose to make a subordinate figure at christenings and lyings-in, when she might be the principal herself; nor curry favour with a sister-inlaw, when she might command an husband; toil in preparing custards, when she might lie a-bed and give directions how they ought to be made; nor stifle all her sensations in demure formality, when she might with matrimonial freedom shake her acquaintance by the hand, and wink at a double entendre. No lady could be so very silly as to live single, if she could help it. I consider an unmarried lady declining into the vale of years, as one of those charming countries bordering on China that lies waste for want of proper inhabitants. We are not to accuse the country, but the ignorance of its neighbours, who are insensible of its beauties, though at liberty to enter and cultivate the soil.

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Indeed, Sir," replied my companion," you "are very little acquainted with the English ladies, "to think they are old maids against their will. I "dare venture to affirm that you can hardly select "one of them all, but has had frequent offers of "marriage, which either pride or avarice has not "made her reject. Instead of thinking it a dis"grace, they take every occasion to boast of their "former cruelty; a soldier does not exult more "when he counts over the wounds he has received, "than a female veteran when she relates the wounds "she has formerly given: exhaustless when she begins a narrative of the former death-dealing

"power

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'power of her eyes. She tells of the knight in gold lace, who died with a single frown, and "never rose again till-he was married to his maid; "of the squire, who being cruelly denied, in a rage, flew to the window, and lifting up the sash, threw himself in an agony-into his arm chair; of the parson, who crossed in love, resolutely swallowed opium, which banished the stings of despised love by-making him sleep. "In short, she talks over her former losses with "pleasure, and like some tradesmen, finds conso"lation in the many bankruptcies she has suffered.

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"For this reason, whenever I see a superannuated beauty still unmarried, I tacitly accuse her either "of pride, avarice, coquetry, or affectation. There's "Miss Jenny Tinderbox, I once remember her to "have had some beauty, and a moderate fortunė. "Her elder sister happened to marry a man of quality, and this seemed as a statute of virginity against poor Jane. Because there was one lucky hit in the family, she was resolved not to disgrace it by introducing a tradesman. By thus rejecting her equals, and neglected or despised by her supe"riors, she now acts in the capacity of tutoress to "her sister's children, and undergoes the drudgery "of three servants, without receiving the wages " of one.

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"Miss Squeeze was a pawnbroker's daughter; her “father had early taught her that money was a very good thing, and left her a moderate fortune at his "death. She was so perfectly sensible of the value "of what she had got, that she was resolved never "to part with a farthing without an equality on the

part of her suitor: she thus refused several offers "made her by people who wanted to better them"selves, as the saying is; and grew old and ill-na"natured, without ever considering that she should "have made an abatement in her pretensions, from

"her

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