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I hope not with you: you have been a great instrument in helping me to get what I have lost, and I know (for that reason, as well as kindness to me) you cannot but be in pain to see me undone. Το show you I am not a man incapable of bearing calamity, I will, though a poor man, lay aside the distinction between us, and talk with the frankness we did when we were nearer to an equality: as all I do will be received with prejudice, all you do will be looked upon with partiality. What I desire of you is, that you, who are courted by all, would smile upon me who am shunned by all. Let that grace and favor which your fortune throws upon you be turned to make up the coldness and indifference that is used towards me. All good and generous men will have an eye of kindness for me for my own sake, and the rest of the world will regard me for your's. There is a happy contagion in riches, as well as a destructive one in poverty: the rich can make rich without parting with any of their store, and the conversation of the poor makes men poor, though they borrow nothing of them. How this is to be accounted for I know not; but men's estimation follows us according to the company we keep. If you are what you were to me, you can go a great way towards my recovery; if you are not, my good fortune, if ever it returns, will return by slower approaches. I am, Sir,

"Your affectionate friend

"and humble servant."

This was answered with a condescension that did not, by long impertinent professions of kindness, in sult his distress, but was as follows:

"DEAR TOM,

"I am very glad to hear that you have heart enough to begin the world a second time. I assure you I do not think your numerous family at all diminished (in the gifts of nature for which I have ever so much admired them) by what has so lately happened to you. I shall not only countenance your affairs with my appearance for you, but shall accommoyou with a considerable sum at common interest for three years. You know I could make more of it; but I have so great a love for you, that I can waive opportunities of gain to help you; for I do not care whether they say of me after I am dead, that I had an hundred or fifty thousand pounds more than I wanted when I was living.

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Seeming to promise something wond'rous great.

I SHALL this day lay before my readers a let

ter, written by the same hand with that of last Friday, which contained proposals for a printed newspaper that should take in the whole circle of the penny post.

“SIR,

"The kind reception you gave my last Friday's letter, in which I broached my project of a newspaper, encourages me to lay before you two or three more; for you must know, Sir, that we look upon you to be the Lowndes (a) of the learned world, and cannot think any scheme practicable or rational before you have approved of it, though all the money we raise by it is on our own funds, and for our private use.

"I have often thought, that a newsletter of whispers, written every post, and sent about the kingdom after the same manner as that of Mr. Dyer, Mr. Dawkes, or any other epistolary historian, might be highly gratifying to the public, as well as beneficial to the author. By whispers I mean those pieces of news which are communicated as secrets, and which bring a double pleasure to the hearer; first, as they are private history, and, in the next place, as they have always in them a dash of scandal. These are the two chief qualifications in an article of news which recommend it, in a more than ordinary manner, to the ears of the curious. Sickness of persons in high posts, twilight visits paid and received by ministers of state, clandestine courtships and marriages, secret amors, losses at play, applications for places, with their respective successes and repulses, are the materials in which I chiefly intend to deal. I have two persons that are each of them the representative of a species who are to furnish me with those whispers which I intend to convey to my correspondents. The first of these is Peter Hush, descended from the ancient family of the Hushes: the other is the old Lady Blast, who has

"DEAR TOM,

"I am very glad to hear that you have heart enough to begin the world a second time. I assure you I do not think your numerous family at all diminished (in the gifts of nature for which I have ever so much admired them) by what has so lately happened to you. I shall not only countenance your affairs with my appearance for you, but shall accommodate you with a considerable sum at common interest for three years. You know I could make more of it; but I have so great a love for you, that I can waive opportunities of gain to help you; for I do not care whether they say of me after I am dead, that I had an hundred or fifty thousand pounds more than I wanted when I was living.

[blocks in formation]

Seeming to promise something wond'rous great.

I SHALL this day lay before my readers a let

ter, written by the same hand with that of last Friday, which contained proposals for a printed newspaper that should take in the whole circle of the penny post.

“SIR,

"The kind reception you gave my last Friday's letter, in which I broached my project of a newspaper, encourages me to lay before you two or three more; for you must know, Sir, that we look upon you to be the Lowndes (a) of the learned world, and cannot think any scheme practicable or rational before you have approved of it, though all the money we raise by it is on our own funds, and for our private use.

"I have often thought, that a newsletter of whispers, written every post, and sent about the kingdom after the same manner as that of Mr. Dyer, Mr. Dawkes, or any other epistolary historian, might be highly gratifying to the public, as well as beneficial to the author. By whispers I mean those pieces of news which are communicated as secrets, and which bring a double pleasure to the hearer; first, as they are private history, and, in the next place, as they have always in them a dash of scandal. These are the two chief qualifications in an article of news which recommend it, in a more than ordinary manner, to the ears of the curious. Sickness of persons in high posts, twilight visits paid and received by ministers of state, clandestine courtships and marriages, secret amors, losses at play, applications for places, with their respective successes and repulses, are the materials in which I chiefly intend to deal. I have two persons that are each of them the representative of a species who are to furnish me with those whispers which I intend to convey to my correspondents. The first of these is Peter Hush, descended from the ancient family of the Hushes: the other is the old Lady Blast, who has

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