 than my former: but upon my word it was very little so; for, by
possessing everything almost before I desired it, I could hardly ever say I
enjoyed my wish: I scarce ever knew the delight of satisfying a craving
appetite. Besides, as I never once thought, my mind was useless to me, and I was
an absolute stranger to all the pleasures arising from it. Nor, indeed, did my
education qualify me for any delicacy in other enjoyments; so that in the midst
of plenty I loathed everything. Taste for elegance I had none; and the greatest
of corporeal blisses I felt no more from than the lowest animal. In a word, as
while a miser I had plenty without daring to use it, so now I had it without
appetite.«
    »But if I was not very happy in the height of my enjoyment, so I afterwards
became perfectly miserable; being soon overtaken by disease, and reduced to
distress, till at length, with a broken constitution and broken heart, I ended
my wretched days in a gaol: nor can I think the sentence of Minos too mild, who
condemned me, after having taken a large dose of avarice, to wander three years
on the banks of Cocytus, with the knowledge of having spent the fortune in the
person of the grandson which I had raised in that of the grandfather.«
    »The place of my birth, on my return to the world, was Constantinople, where
my father was a carpenter. The first thing I remember was, the triumph of
Belisarius, which was, indeed, a most noble shew; but nothing pleased me so much
as the figure of Gelimer, king of the African Vandals, who, being led captive on
this occasion, reflecting with disdain on the mutation of his own fortune, and
on the ridiculous empty pomp of the conqueror, cried out, VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS
MERE VANITY.«
    »I was bred up to my father's trade, and you may easily believe so low a
sphere could produce no adventures worth your notice. However, I married a woman
I liked, and who proved a very tolerable wife. My days were past in hard labour,
but this procured me health, and I enjoyed a homely supper at night with my wife
with more pleasure than I apprehend greater persons find at their luxurious
meals. My life had scarce any variety in it, and at my death I advanced to Minos
with great confidence of entering the gate: but I was unhappily obliged to
discover some frauds I had been guilty of in the measure of
