which the principal was a purse made of the asbestos, which purifies by fire. Sir Hans Sloane heard of it, came to see me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury Square, showed me all his curiosities, and persuaded me to add that to the number; for which he paid me handsomely.

In our house lodged a young woman, a milliner, who, I think, had a shop in the cloisters: she had been genteelly bred, was sensible, lively, and of a most pleasing conversation. Ralph read plays to her in the evenings, they grew intimate, she took another lodging, and he followed her. They lived together some time; but he being still out of business, and her income not sufficient to maintain them with her child, he took a resolution of going from London, to try for a country school, which he thought himself well qualified to undertake, as he wrote an excellent hand, and was a master of arithmetic and accounts. This however he deemed a business below him, and confident of future better fortune, when he should be unwilling to have it known that he once was so meanly employed, he changed his name, and did me the honor to assume mine; for I soon after had a letter from him, acquainting me that he was settled in a small village (in Berkshire, I think it was, where he taught reading and writing to ten or a dozen boys at 6d. each per week), recommending Mrs. T*** to my care, and desiring me to write to him, directing for Mr. Franklin, schoolmaster, at such a

VOL. I.

E

place. He continued to write to me frequently, sending me large specimens of an epic poem, which he was then composing, and desiring my remarks and corrections. These I gave him from time to time, but endeavored rather to discouragé his proceeding. One of Young's satires was then just published: I copied and sent him a great part of it, which set in a strong light the folly of pursuing the Muses.' All was in vain: sheets of the

1

"Th' abandon'd manners of our writing train

May tempt mankind to think religion vain ;

But in their fate, their habit, and their mien,
That Gods there are, is evidently seen:

Heav'n stands absolv'd by vengeance on their pen,
And marks the murderers of fame from men :
Thro' meagre jaws they draw their venal breath,
As ghastly as their brothers in Macbeth:
Their feet thro' faithless leather meets the dirt,
And oftener chang'd their principles than shirt:
The transient vestments of these frugal men
Hasten to paper for our mirth again :
Too soon (O merry, melancholy fate!)
They beg in rhyme, and warble thro' a grate;
The man lampoon'd, forgets it at the sight;
The friend thro' pity gives, the foe thro' spight;
And tho' full conscious of his injur'd purse,
Lintot relents, nor Curll can wish them worse."

"An Author, 'tis a venerable name!
How few deserve it and what numbers claim!
Unbless'd with sense, above their peers refin'd,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind?

poem continued to come by every post. In the mean time, Mrs. T***, having on his account lost her friends and business, was often in distresses, and used to send for me, and borrow what I could spare to help to alleviate them. I grew fond of her company, and being at that time under no religious restraint, and taking advantage of my

Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue's cause?
That sole proprietor of just applause.

money

"Ye restless men! who pant for letter'd praise,
With whom would you consult to gain the bays?
With those great authors whose fam'd works you read?
"Tis well; go, then, consult the laurell'd shade,

What answer will the laurell'd shade return?
Hear it and tremble; he commands you burn
The noblest works, his envy'd genius writ,
That boasts of naught more excellent than wit.
If this be true, as 'tis a truth most dread,
Wo to the page which has not that to plead!
Fontaine and Chaucer dying, wish'd unwrote
The sprightliest efforts of their wanton thought:
Sidney and Waller, brightest sons of fame,
Condemn'd the charm of ages to the flame."

"Thus ends your courted fame-does lucre then,
The sacred thirst of gold, betray your pen

In prose 'tis blameable, in verse 'tis worse,
Provokes the Muse, extorts Apollo's curse;
His sacred influence never should be sold;
'Tis arrant simony to sing for gold;
Tis immortality should fire your mind:
Scorn a less paymaster than all mankind.”

?

YOUNG, Vol. III. Epist. II. p. 70.

importance to her, I attempted to take some liberties with her, (another erratum) which she repulsed, with a proper degree of resentment. She wrote to Ralph and acquainted him with my conduct; this occasioned a breach between us; and when he returned to London, he let me know he considered all the obligations he had been under to me as annulled from which I concluded I was never to expect his repaying the money I had lent him, or that I had advanced for him. This however was of little consequence, as he was totally unable; and by the loss of his friendship, I found myself relieved from a heavy burden. I now began to think of getting a little before-hand, and expecting better employment, I left Palmer's to work at Watts's, (near Lincoln's Inn Fields) a still greater printing-house. Here I continued all the rest of my stay in London.

At my first admission into the printing-house I took to working at press, imagining I felt a want of the bodily exercise I had been used to in America, where press-work is mixed with the composing. I drank only water; the other workmen, near 50 in number, were great drinkers of beer. On occasion I carried up and down stairs a large form of types in each hand, when others carried but one in both hands; they wondered to see from this and several instances, that the Water-American, as they called me, was stronger than themselves who drank strong beer! We had an ale

house boy, who attended always in the house to supply the workmen. My companion at the press drank every day a pint before breakfast, a pint at breakfast with his bread and cheese, a pint between breakfast and dinner; a pint at dinner, a pint in the afternoon about 6 o'clock, and another when he had done his day's work. I thought it a detestable custom; but it was necessary, he supposed, to drink strong beer that he might be strong to labor. I endeavored to convince him that the bodily strength afforded by beer, could only be in proportion to the grain or flour of the barley dissolved in the water of which it was made; that there was more flour in a pennyworth of bread, and therefore if he could eat that with a pint of water, it would give him more strength than a quart of beer. He drank on however, and had four or five shillings to pay out of his wages every Saturday night for that vile liquor; an expence I was free from. And thus these poor devils keep themselves always under.

Watts, after some weeks, desiring to have me in the composing-room, I left the pressmen; a new bien venu for drink, (being 5s.) was demanded of me by the compositors. I thought it an imposition, as I had paid one to the pressmen; the master thought so too, and forbad my paying it. I stood out two or three weeks, was accordingly considered as an excommunicate, and had so many-little pieces of private malice practised on