; the sober wise man with his
dram-bottle; or, the anti-carnalist (if I may be allowed the expression)
chuckling over a b-dy book or picture, and perhaps caressing his housemaid!«
    »But to conclude a character in which I apprehend I made as absurd a figure
as in any in which I trod the stage of earth, my wisdom at last put an end to
itself, that is, occasioned my dissolution.«
    »A relation of mine in the eastern part of the empire disinherited his son,
and left me his heir. This happened in the depth of winter, when I was in my
grand climacteric, and had just recovered of a dangerous disease. As I had all
the reason imaginable to apprehend the family of the deceased would conspire
against me, and embezzle as much as they could, I advised with a grave and wise
friend what was proper to be done; whether I should go myself, or employ a
notary on this occasion, and defer my journey to the spring. To say the truth, I
was most inclined to the latter; the rather as my circumstances were extremely
flourishing, as I was advanced in years, and had not one person in the world to
whom I should with pleasure bequeath any fortune at my death.«
    »My friend told me he thought my question admitted of no manner of doubt or
debate; that common prudence absolutely required my immediate departure; adding,
that if the same good luck had happened to him he would have been already on his
journey; for, continued he, a man who knows the world so well as you, would be
inexcusable to give persons such an opportunity of cheating you, who, you must
be assured, will be too well inclined; and as for employing a notary, remember
that excellent maxim, Ne facias per alium, quod fieri potest per te. I own the
badness of the season and your very late recovery are unlucky circumstances; but
a wise man must get over difficulties when necessity obliges him to encounter
them.«
    »I was immediately determined by this opinion. The duty of a wise man made
an irresistible impression, and I took the necessity for granted without
examination. I accordingly set forward the next morning; very tempestuous
weather soon overtook me; I had not travelled three days before I relapsed into
my fever, and died.«
    »I was now as cruelly disappointed by Minos as I had formerly been happily
so. I advanced with the utmost confidence to the gate, and really imagined I
should have been admitted by the wisdom of my countenance
