dextrous and active in business; and his mafter, being fecured against any confequences of dishonesty, was very little folicitous to infpect his manners, or to inquire how he paffed those hours, which were not immediately devoted to the business of his profeffion : when he was informed of the young man's extravagance or debauchery, "Let his bondfman look to "that," faid he ; " I have taken care of myself."

Thus the unhappy fpendthrift proceeded from folly, to folly, and from vice to vice, with the connivance if not the encouragement. of his master; till in the heat of a nocturnal revel he committed fuch violences in the street as drew upon him a criminal profecution. Guilty. and unexperienced, he knew not what courfe to take; to confefs- his crime to Candidus, and folicit his interpofition, was little lefs dreadful than to ftand before the frown of a court of juftice. Having, therefore, passed the day with anguish. in his heart and distraction in his looks, he seised at night a very large fum of money in the compting-house, and setting out he knew not whither, was heard of no more..

The confequence of his flight was the ruin of Candidus: ruin furely undeferved and irreproachable, and fuch as the laws of a just government ought either to prevent or repair: nothing is more inequitable than that one man should suffer for the crimes of another, for crimes which he neither prompted nor permitted, which he could neither forefee nor prevent. When we confider the weaknefs of human refolutions and the inconfiftency of human conduct, it must appear. abfurd that one man shall engage for another, that he will not change his opinions or alter his conduct.

It is, I think, worthy of confideration, whether, fince no wager is binding without a poffibility of lofs on each fide, it is not equally reafonable, that no contract should be valid without reciprocal ftipulations: but in this cafe, and others of the fame kind, what is ftipulated on his fide to whom the bond is given? he takes advantage of the fecurity, neglects his affairs, omits his duty, fuffers timorous wickednefs to grow daring by degrees, permits appetite to call for new gratifications, and, perhaps, fecretly longs for the time in which he fhall have power to feize the forfeiture: and if virtue or gratitude should prove too ftrong for temptation, and a young man perfist in honesty, however inftigated by his paffions, what can fecure him at last against a falfe accufation? I for my part always fhall fuspect, that he who can by fuch methods fecure his property; will go one step farther to increase it; nor can I think that man fafely trufted with the means of mifchief, who, by his defire to have them in his hands, gives an evident proof how much less he values his neighbours Happiness than his own.

Another of our companions is Lentulus, a man whofe dignity of birth was very ill fupported by his fortune, As fome of the first offices in the kingdom were filled by his relations, he was early invited to court, and encouraged by careffes and promifes to attendance and folicitation: a conftant appearance in Splendid company neceffarily required magnificence of dress; and a frequent participation of fashionable amufements forced him into expence: but these meafures were requifite to his fuccefs; fince every body knows, that to be loft to fight is to be loft to remembrance, and that he who defires to fill a vacancy, muit

be

be always at hand, left some man of greater vigilance fhould ftep in before him.

By this courfe of life his little fortune was every day made lefs but he received fo many distinctions in public, and was known to resort fo familiarly to the houses of the great, that every man looked on his preferment as certain and believed that its value would compensate for its flowness: he, therefore, found no difficulty in obtaining credit for all that his rank or his vanity made neceffary; and as ready payment was not expected, the bills were proportionably enlarged,and the value of the hazard or delay were adjusted folely by the equity of the creditor. At length death deprived Lentulus of one of his patrons, and a revolution in the ministry of another; so that all his prospects vanished at once, and those that had before encouraged his expences, began to perceive that their money was in danger: there was now no other contention but who should first seize upon his person, and, by forcing immediate payment, deliver him up naked to the vengeance of the reft. In purfuance of this fcheme, one of them invited him to a tavern, and procured him to be arrested at the door; but Lentulus, inftead of endeavouring fecretly to pacify him by payment, gave notice to the reft, and offered to divide amongst them the remnant of his fortune they feafted fix hours at his expence, to deliberate on his propofal; and at last determined, that, as he could not offer more than five fhillings in the pound, it would be more prudent to keep him in prison, till he could procure from his relations the payment of his debts.

Lentulus is not the only man confined within these walls, on the fame account: the like procedure, upon

the

the fame motives, is common among men whom the law allows to partake the use of fire and water with the compaffionate and the juft: who frequent the af femblies of commerce in open day, and talk with deteftation and contempt of highwaymen or housebreakers but, furely, that man must be confeffedly robbed, who is compelled, by whatever means, to pay the debts which he does not owe; nor can I look with equal hatred upon him, who, at the hazard of his life, holds out his pistol and demands my purse, as on him who plunders under fhelter of the law, and, by detaining my fon or my friend in prifon, extorts from me the price of their liberty. No man can be more an enemy to fociety than he, by whofe machinations our virtues are turned to our disadvantage; he is lefs deftructive to mankind that plunders cowardice, than he that preys upon compaffion.

I believe, Mr. Adventurer, you will readily confess, that though not one of these, if tried before a commercial judicature, can be wholly acquitted from imprudence or temerity; yet that, in the eye of all who can confider virtue as diftinct from wealth, the fault of two of them, at least, is outweighed by the merit; and that of the third is fo much extenuated by the circumstances of his life, as not to deferve a perpetual prifon: yet must these, with multitudes equally blameless, lan-. guifh in confinement, till malevolence shall relent, or the law be changed.

T

I am, SIR,

Your humble fervant,

MISARGYRUS.

No

No. LXIII. Tuefday, June 12, 1753

Pereant, qui ante nos noftra dixerunt !

DONATUS apud JEROM.

Perish those who have faid our good things before us.

THE number of original writers, of writers who difcover any traces of native thought, or veins of new expreffion, is found to be extremely fmall in every branch of literature. Few poffefs ability or courage to think for themselves, to trust to their own powers, to rely on their own stock; and, therefore, the generality creep tamely and cautiously in the track of their predeceffors. The quinteffence of the largest libraries might be reduced to the compafs of a few volumes, if all useless repetitions and acknowledged truths were to be omitted in this procefs of critical chemistry. A learned Frenchman informs us, that he intended to compile a treatise, περι των απαξ ειρημένων, concerning things that had been "faid but once," which certainly would have been. contained in a very small pamphlet.

66

It happens unfortunately in poetry, which principally claims the merit of novelty and invention, that this want of originality arifes frequently, not from a barrenness and timidity of genius, but from invincible neceffity and the nature of things. The works of those

who