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ed with Ralph almost all that I earned. Plays and other places of amusement which we frequented together, having exhausted my pistoles, we lived after this from hand to mouth. He appeared to have entirely forgotten his wife and child, as I also, by degrees forgot my engagement with Miss Read, to whom I never wrote more than one letter, and that merely to inform her that I was not likely to return soon. This was another grand error of my life, which I should be desirous of correcting, were I to begin my career again.

I was employed at Palmer's on the second edition of Woolaston's Religion of Nature. Some of his arguments appearing to me not to be well founded, I wrote a small metaphysical treatise in which I animadverted on those passages. It was entitled a Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain. I dedicated it to my friend Ralph, and printed a small number of copies. Palmer upon this treated me with more consideration, and regarded me as a young man of talents; tho' he seriously took me to task for the principles of my pamphlet, which he looked upon as abominable. The printing of this work was another error of my life.

While I lodged in Little Britain I formed aċquaintance with a bookseller of the name of Wilcox, whose shop was next door to me. Circulating libraries were not then in use. He had an immense collection of books of all sorts. We agreed that, for a reasonable retribution, of which I have now forgotten the price, I should have free access to his library, and take what books I pleased, which I was to return when I read them. I considered this a

greement as a very great advantage; and I derived from it as much benefit as was in my power.

My pamphlet falling into the hands of a surgeon, of the name of Lyons, author of a book entitled Infalibility of Human Judgment, was the occasion of a consiberable intimacy between us. He express

ed great esteem for me, came frequently to see me, in order to converse upon metapin sical subjects, and introduced me to Dr. Mandeville, author of the Fable of Bees, who had instituted a club at a tavern in Cheapside, of which he was the soul: he was a facetious and very amusing character. He also introduced me, at Baston's coffee-house, to Dr. Pemberton, who promised to give me an opportunity of seeing Sir Isaac Newton, which I very ardently desired; but he never kept his word.

I had brought some curiosities with ine from America; the principal of which was a purse made of asbestos, which fire only purifies. Sir Hans Sloane hearing of it, called upon me, and invited me to his house in Bloomsbury-square, where after showing me every thing that was curious, he prevailed on me to add this piece to his collection; for which he paid me very handsomely.

She

There lodged in the same house with us a young woman, a miliner who had a shop by the side of the Exchange. Lively and sensible, aud having received an education somewhat above her rank, her conversation was very agreeable. Ralph read plays to her every evening. They became intimate. took another lodging, and he followed her. They lived some time together; but Ralph being without employment, she having a child, and the profies of her business not sufficing for the maintainance of three, he resolved to quit London, and try a country school. This was a plan in which he thought himself likely to succeed, as he

its being known that he had exercised a profession so little nonorable, he changed his name, and did me the honor of assuming mine. He wrote to me soon after his departure, informing me that he was settled at a small village in Berkshire. In his letter he recommended Mrs. T***, the miliner, to my care, and requested an answer directed to Mr. Franklin, schoolmaster at N***.

He continued to write to me frequently, sending me large fragments of an epic poem he was composing, and which he requested me to criticise and correct. I did so, but not without endeavoring to prevail on him to renounce this pursuit. Young had just published one of his Satires. I copied and sent him a great part of it; in which the au hor demonstrates the folly of cultivating the Muses, from the hope, by their instrumentality, of rising in the world. It was all to no purpose; paper after paper of his poem continued to arrive every post.

Meanwhile Mrs. T*** having lost, on his account, both her friends and her business, was fre. quently in distress. In this dilemma she had recourse to me, and to extricate her from her difficulties, I lent her all the money I could spare. I felt a little too much fondness for her. Having at that time no ties of religion, and taking advantage of her necessitous situation, I attempted liberties (anether error of my life) which she repelled with becoming indignation. She informed Ralph of my conduct; and the affair occasioned a breach beWhen he returned to London, he gave

tween us.

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me to understand that he considered all the obligations he owed me as annihilated by this proceeding; whence I concluded that I was never to expect the payment of what money I had lent him, or advanc eu on his account. I was the less afflicted at this, as he was unable to pay me; and as, by losing his friendship, I was relieved at the same time from a very heavy burden.

I now began to think of laying by some money. The printing house of Watts, near Lincoln's Inn Fields, being a s.ill more considerable one than that in which I worked, it was probable that I might find it more advantageous to be employed there.— I offered my self, and was accepted; and in this house I continued during the remainder of my stay in London.

On my entrance I worked at first as a pressman, conceiving that I had need of bodily exercise, to which I had been accustomed in America, where the printers work alternately as compositors and at the press. I drank nothing but water. The other workmen, to the number of about fifty, were great drinkers of beer. I corried occasionally a large form of letters in each hand, up and down stairs, while the rest employed both hands to carry one.— They were surprised to see, by this and many other examples, that the American Aquatic, as they used to call me, was stronger than those who drank porThe beer boy had sufficient employment duing the the whole day in serving that house alone. My fellow-pressman drank every day a pint of heer before breakfast, a pint with bread and cheese for breiktist, one between breakfast and dinner, one at dianer, ore again about six o'clock in the afternoon, and another after he had finished his day's work. This custom appeared to me abominiable;

ter.

the solid part of the barley dissolved in the water of which the beer was composed; that there was a larger portion of flour in a penny loaf, and that coùsequently if he eat this loaf, and drank a pint of water with it, he would derive more strength from it than from a pint of beer. This reasoning, however, did not prevent him from drinking his accustomed quantity of beer, and paying every Saturday night a score of four or five shillings a week for this CUISed beverage; an expence from which I was wholly exempt. Thus do these poor devils continue all their lives in a state of voluntary wretchedness and poverty.

At the end of a few weeks, Watts having occa sion for me above stairs as a compositor, I quitted the press. The compositors demanded of me garnish money afresh. This I considered as an imposition, having already paid below. The master was of the same opinion and desired me not to comply. I thus remained two or three weeks out of the fraternity. I was consequently looked upon as excommunicated; and whenever I was absent, no little trick that malice could suggest was left unpracticed upon me. I found my letters mixed, my pages transposed, my matter broken, &c. &c. all which was attributed to the spirit that haunted the chapel, and tormented those who were not regularly admitted. I was at last obliged to submit to pay, notwithstanding the protection of the mas

*

of

Printing houses in general are thus denominated by the workmen; the spirit they call by the name Ralph.

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