her mind seemed not yet abated; she said twenty giddy things that looked like joy, and then laughed loud at her own want of meaning. At intervals she would take a fly peep at the glafs, as if happy in the confcioufnefs of irrefiftible beauty, and often would ask questions, without giving any manner of attention to the answers.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

THE

VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.

VOLUME THE SECOND.

CHA P. I.

THE HISTORY OF A PHILOSOPHIC VAGABOND, PURSUING NOVELTY, BUT LOSING CONTENT.

AFTER

FTER we had fupped, Mrs. Arnold politely offered to fend a couple of her footmen for my fon's baggage, which he at first seemed to decline; but upon her preffing the requeft, he was obliged to inform her, that a ftick and a wallet were all the moveable things upon this earth which he could boast of. Why, aye, my fon,' cried I, you left me but poor, and poor I find you are come back; and yet I make no doubt you have seen a great deal of the world.' 'Yes, Sir,' replied my son, 'but travelling after fortune is not the way to fecure her; and, indeed, of late, I have defifted from the purfuit.' I fancy, Sir,' cried Mrs. Arnold, that the account of your adventures would be amufing: the first part of 'them I have often heard from my niece; but could the company prevail for the reft, it would be an additional obligation.'' Madam,' replied my fon, ' I promise you

'the pleasure you have in hearing, will not be half fo great 'as my vanity in repeating them, and yet in the whole ⚫ narrative I can scarce promife you one adventure, as my < account is rather of what I faw, than what I did. The 'first misfortune of my life, which you all know, was great; but though it diftreft, it could not fink me. No 'perfon ever had a better knack at hoping than I. The lefs kind I found fortune at one time, the more I ex'pected from her another; and being now at the bottom ' of her wheel, every new revolution might lift, but 'could not depress me. I proceeded, therefore, towards London in a fine morning, no way uneafy about tomorrow, but chearful as the birds that carolled by the 'road; and comforted myself with reflecting, that London was the mart where abilities of every kind were fure of meeting distinction and reward.

'Upon my arrival in town, Sir, my first care was to ' deliver your letter of recommendation to our coufin, who was himself in little better circumstances than I. My 'first scheme, you know, Sir, was to be usher at an aca" demy, and I asked his advice on the affair. Our coufin ' received the propofal with a true Sardonic grin. "Aye," 'cried he, "this is indeed a very pretty career that has "been chalked out for you. I have been an ufher to a "boarding-school myfelf; and may I die by an anodyne "necklace, but I had rather be an under-turnkey in "Newgate. I was up early and late: I was brow-beat

by the master, hated for my ugly face by the mistress, "worried by the boys within, and never permitted to stir "out to meet civility abroad. But are you fure you are "fit for a school? Let me examine you a little. Have

you been bred an apprentice to the bufinefs?" No.

"Then you won't do for a school. Can you drefs the "boys hair?" No. "Then you won't do for a school. "Have you had the fmall pox?" No. "Then you "won't do for a school. Can you lie three in a bed?” 'No. "Then you will never do for a school. Have (6 you got a good ftomach ?" Yes. "Then you will by no means do for a fchool. No, Sir, if you are for a genteel eafy profeffion, bind yourself seven years as an "apprentice to turn a cutler's wheel; but avoid a fchool by any means. Yet come," continued he, I fee you are a lad of spirit and fome learning, what do you "think of commencing author, like me? You have read "in books, no doubt, of men of genius ftarving at the "trade: at present I'll fhew you forty very dull fellows "about town that live by it in opulence. All honeft jog"trot men, who go on fmoothly and dully, and write "hiftory and politicks, and are praised: men, Sir, who, "had they been bred coblers, would all their lives have "only mended shoes, but never made them."

Finding that there was no degree of gentility affixed ⚫ to the character of an ufher, I refolved to accept his propofal; and having the higheft refpect for literature, hail'ed the antiqua mater of Grub-street with reverence.

I

⚫ thought it my glory to pursue a track which Dryden and 'Otway trod before me. I confidered the goddess of this

region as the parent of excellence; and however an intercourfe with the world might give us good-fenfe, the poverty the granted I fuppofed to be the nurfe of genius! Big with thefe reflections, I fat down, and finding that the best things remained to be faid on the wrong fide, I ⚫ refolved to write a book that should be wholly new. I therefore dreft up three paradoxes with fome ingenuity.

They were falfe, indeed, but they were new. The 'jewels of truth have been so often imported by others, 'that nothing was left for me to import but fome fplen'did things that at a distance looked every bit as well. 'Witness, you powers, what fancied importance fate < perched upon my quill while I was writing. The whole ' learned world, I made no doubt, would rife to oppose I my fyitems; but then I was prepared to oppose the whole 'learned world. Like the porcupine, I fate felf-collected, ' with a quill pointed against every opposer.'

'Well faid, my boy,' cried I, and what fubject did you treat upon? I hope you did not pafs over the importance of monogamy. But I interrupt, go on; you " published your paradoxes; well, and what did the learn'ed world fay to your paradoxes?'

'Sir,' replied my fon, the learned world faid nothing 'to my paradoxes; nothing at all, Sir. Every man of 'them was employed in praising his friends and himself, ' or condemning his enemies; and unfortunately, as I had 'neither, I fuffered the cruelleft mortification, neglect.

'As I was meditating one day in a coffee-house on the fate of my paradoxes, a little man happening to enter 'the room, placed himself in the box before me, and after 'fome preliminary discourse, finding me to be a scholar, "drew out a bundle of proposals, begging me to fubscribe < to a new edition he was going to give the world of Pro'pertius, with notes. This demand neceffarily produced ' a reply that I had no money; and that conceffion led 'him to enquire into the nature of my expectations. Finding that my expectations were just as great as my purse, "I fee," cried he, "you are unacquainted with "the town. I'll teach you a part of it. Look at these