neral Confiderations; For one fuch Cafe as one of thefe, there are ten, where a Man, to keep up a Farce of Retinue and Grandeur within his own House, fhall fhrink at the Expectation of furly Demands at his Doors. The Debtor is the Creditor's Criminal, and all the Officers of Power and State, whom we behold make fo great a Figure, are no other than fo many Perfons in Authority to make good his Charge against him. Human Society depends upon his having the Vengeance Law allots him; and the Debtor owes his Liberty to his Neighbour, as much as the Murderer does his Life to his Prince.

OUR Gentry are, generally fpeaking, in Debt; and many Families have put it into a kind of Method of being fo from Generation to Generation. The Father mortgages when his Son is very young; and the Boy is to marry as foon as he is at Age to redeem it, and find Portions for his Sifters. This, forfooth, is no great Inconvenience to him; for he may Wench, keep a publick Table, or feed Dogs, like a worthy English Gentleman, till he has out-run half his Estate, and leave the fame Incumbrance upon his First-born, and fo on, till one

Man

Man of more Vigour than ordinary goes quite through the Eftate, or fome Man of Senfe comes into it, and scorns to have an Estate in Partnership, that is to fay, liable to the Demand or Infult of any Man living. There is my Friend Sir ANDREW, tho' for many Years a great and general Trader, was never the Defendant in a Law-Suit, in all the Perplexity of Bufinefs, and the Iniquity of Mankind at prefent: No one had any Colour for the least Complaint againft his Dealings with him. This is certainly as uncommon, and in its Proportion as laudable in a Citizen, as it is in a General never to have fuffered a Dif advantage in Fight. How different from this Gentleman is Jack Truepenny, who has been an old Acquaintance of Sir ANDREW and my self from Boys, but could never learn our Caution. Jack has a whorish unrefifting good Nature, which makes him incapable of having a Property in any Thing. His Fortune, his Reputation, his Time, and his Capacity, are at any Man's Service that comes firft. When he was at School, he was whipped thrice a Week for Faults he took upon him to excufe others; fince he came into the Bufinefs

of

of the World, he has been arrested twice or thrice a Year for Debts he had nothing to do with, but as Surety for others; and I remember when a Friend of his had fuffered in the Vice of the Town, all the Phyfick his Friend took was conveyed to him by Jack, and infcribed, A Bolus or an Electuary for Mr. Truepenny.' Jack had a good Eftate left him, which came to nothing; because he believed all who pretended to Demands upon it. This Eafiness and Credulity destroy all the other Merit he has; and he has all his Life been a Sacrifice to others, without ever receiving Thanks, or doing one good Action.

I will end, this Difcourfe with a Speech which I heard Jack make to one of his Creditors, (of whom he deferved gentler Ufage) after lying a whole Night in Cuftody at his Suit.

SIR,

Yo

OUR Ingratitude for the many Kindneffes I have done you, fhall 6 not make me unthankful for the Good you have done me, in letting me fee there is fuch a Man as you in the • World. I am obliged to you for the 'Diffi

Diffidence I fhall have all the reft of my Life: Ifhall hereafter trust no Man fo far as to be in his Debt.

R

N° 83.

Tuesday, June 5.

W

HEN the Weather hinders me from taking my Diverfions without Doors, I frequently make a little Party with two or three felect Friends, to vifit any thing curious that may be feen under Covert. My principal Entertainments of this nature are Pictures, infomuch that when I have found the Weather fet in to be very bad, I have taken a whole Day's Jour ny to see a Gallery that is furnifhed by the Hands of great Mafters. By this means, when the Heavens are fill'd with Clouds, when the Earth fwims in Rain, and all Nature wears a low'ring Coun tenance, I withdraw my felf from these uncomfortable Scenes into the vifionary Worlds of Art; where I meet with

Thining

fhining Landskips, gilded Triumphs, beautiful Faces, and all those other Objects that fill the Mind with gay Ideas, and difperfe that Gloominefs which is apt to hang upon it in thofe dark difconfolate Seafons.

I was fome Weeks ago in a Course of these Diverfions; which had taken fuch an entire Poffeffion of my Imagination, that they formed in it a fhort Morning's Dream, which I fhall communicate to my Reader, rather as the first Sketch and Outlines of a Vifion, than as a finished Piece.

I dreamt that I was admitted into a long fpacious Gallery, which had one Side covered with Pieces of all the famous Painters who are now living, and the other with the Works of the greateft Masters that are dead.

ON the Side of the Living, I faw feveral Persons bufie in Drawing, Colouring, and Designing; on the Side of the Dead Painters, I could not discover more than one Perfon at Work, who was exceeding flow in his Motions, and wonderfully nice in his Touches,

I was refolved to examine the several Artists that stood before me, and accordingly applied my felf to the Side

of