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Pyræus, was his own property. He was thus the richest man in Greece, or in the world, without encountering any hazards, or exciting any envy. He was the greatest, with the fewest enemies, and with the least danger from conspiracies and rebellions. Of those which were wrecked, he took no pains to make any inquiries, but was beyond measure delighted when a vessel came safe into port, with a valuable lading. He lived a long time in this flattering delusion, till one of his brothers, who had a tender regard for him, arrived from Sicily. By his directions he was attended by a skilful physician, who succeeded in restoring him to the sound possession of his faculties. This was no sooner effected, than his cheerfulness in a great measure abandoned him; and he was wont ever after to declare, that he had never been so happy as when he drove a trade with all parts of the world from his own port, the Pyræus.

The case of this happy madman in some degree resembles my own; for the truth is, I have so long exercised the privilege of dictating to my countrymen, that I sometimes feel as if every thing I saw around me was my own property; and whatever my neighbours enjoyed, was held under me on condition of their good behaviour. Let no good-natured friend therefore endeavour to disenchant my mind from so pleasing an error, as long as they think it may conduce to give me spirit in an undertaking that may not be wholly useless to the public and to posterity. But perhaps another little story which I have in my memory, may serve to represent my situation better.

There was a certain carpenter in a little town of Silesia, who was famous for dispatch and skill in his craft: he was besides a man of a most facetious fancy, and would often amuse himself with contriving curious and whimsical machines. It happened that

a king of Bohemia was wounded in battle near the place where he lived: the carpenter was immediately employed to construct a kind of cradle, in which his majesty might be transported to his palace with ease and safety. The poor man was so elated with the honour done to his professional abilities, that he fairly lost his reason. In his disturbed imagination, he conceived that Jupiter had given him a job, which was to construct another globe that should be free from the inconveniences to which that which had already been formed by himself was so liable, as he had it in contemplation to substitute a more virtuous race of mortals, that would deserve a better accommodation. This poor fellow became in the end so crazy, that when he was sent for to put up a neighbour's door, or mend his elbow-chair, he would return for answer, that until he had chiselled out his new city in the place of Grand Cairo, he could not possibly attend to any other business. Now the conceit with which I am possessed, is not unlike that of the crazy carpenter, with this difference, that whereas he supposed himself employed by Jupiter to construct a new globe on a superior principle, it is my humour to imagine myself deputed to hammer out a new and worthier race of mortals to inhabit it when it shall be ready for their reception.

With these notions in my head, I set off a few days ago for this metropolis, where I am lodged in the house of a turner, in which the OLIVE-BRANCHES have occasionally resided for this century back, and where my great-grandfather bought his favourite tobacco-stopper, but which has at present no other recommendations. They lay claim here also to the honour of having built my mother's great chair; but as this important fact has no place in our family records, I am very much inclined to doubt its authen

ticity, although it is very certain, that, among my landlord's curiosities, the most valuable article is a real undoubted splinter of a walking-stick, that was many years in the possession of Mr. Isaac Olivebranch, the father of my great-grandfather, and the author of those original observations which appeared in my 17th Number.

The morning after my arrival in this city, having substituted a pair of buckles in the place of my old ones, that savoured less of the middle ages, and having at once covered the family cut of my frock, and given a decent consistency to my little mummy frame, by the help of a common blue surtout coat, and all this to prevent my being pointed out as Old Simon, the Northamptonshire parson, I sallied forth with a fine sun over my head, determined to lounge away the morning in the streets of this capital. A long time had now elapsed since my visit to London; but as my mind has always been pretty much peopled, and my thoughts accustomed to the contemplation of crowded scenes and active life, and turned, by a natural bias, towards the human kind, I did not experience those bewildering emotions, that confusion of ideas, that mental trouble, and that sinking sense of comparative insignificance, which some of the most retired of my country neighbours have represented themselves to have felt in walking through the streets of London, after a long rustication. It is pretty certain that most men feel their personal consequence die away in crowded resorts, unless they themselves bear a principal part in them, or by some means or other. have extended their connections over a very considerable range. When we have once raised ourselves, however, to this elevation, the very reverse of these effects will be the consequence: and the greater the crowd, the business, and the stir there is about us, the more we feel our consequence advanced,

and in such a case we are never more at home than when we are abroad. Now, however little disposed my readers may be to acknowledge it, I cannot help feeling myself in this latter predicament; and as I walk along in this great market of human souls, in the midst of this fermentation of business and pleasure, among shops, and theatres, and taverns, and churches, and horses, and houses, and shows, and funerals, and forums, and halls, and palaces, I consider them all as administering to my undertaking, and under a kind of contribution to my plan, as well as under my special controul and cognisance.

I was a good deal amused and surprised by the numerous changes which had taken place since my last visit, and which appeared in every circumstance of life; and though upon the whole the balance was much on the side of improvement, I had not got to the end of my street before I encountered a vast deal that was ridiculous and discommendable. The first observation I was led to make on the state of the capital, was the very promising symptoms of an increasing population, in the shapes of the young ladies; and I own I was much delighted to behold so much elegance and fashion enlisted in the cause of matrimony. I drew a plain inference from this spectacle that was very honourable to my fellowcreatures; and I considered it as the effect and the proof of that sanctity of morals, under which the marriage state is sure to be accredited and promoted; and in the exultation of my spirits was on the point of appropriating to myself a share in this happy revolution, when, happening to call at a fashionable ladies' school, to inquire after the health of two of Mr. Allworth's nieces, I was again disconcerted by beholding my two young friends, who were neither of them fourteen years old, in a very mature state of pregnancy. Though I am spared the confusion of a

blush by the olive cast of my complexion, I felt a strong sensation of inward shame, at an appearance so suspicious, and had just made up my mind to call the young ladies aside, that I might put such questions to them as my age allowed me, before I carried this unwelcome news to my worthy unsuspecting friend, when a couple of French teachers entered the room, that seemed each to be within a month of bringing twins into the world, followed by the governess, who, though apparently turned of fifty, brought with her a more rampant protuberance than them all put together. I shuddered at my own pinched-up figure amidst this surrounding plumpness, and seemed to myself almost shrunk up to nothing-till, no longer able to bear it out, I stole my hat off the peg on which it was hung, and having recommended all the company to the protection of Heaven, repaired straight to my landlady, to entreat a solution of this strange phænomenon. My landlady was unfortunately from home; and in the mean time I took up a letter that was upon my scrutoire, to amuse myself till her return. This letter was from my mother, and could not have been sent at a time in which it was likely to make a stronger impression.

"My dear Child,

66

Being aware of the bad habits, and the manifold snares of the great town into which you are launched, I cannot help again beseeching you to exercise all the discretion which God has given you to defend you against the craftiness of evil-minded men, and the poisonous wiles of cunning untoward women, remembering that the pure blood of the OLIVE-BRANCHES flows in your veins. In the mean time, I offer up my humble petitions, night and

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