tion he was confirmed by the repeated
suggestions of his friend Cadwallader, who taxed him with letting his
talents rust in indolence, and stimulated his natural vivacity with a
succession of fresh discoveries in the world of scandal.

Peregrine was now seized with a strange whim, and when he communicated
the conceit to Cadwallader, it in a moment acquired his approbation.
This notion he imparted in a proposal to subject the town to their
ridicule, by giving responses to the character of a professed conjurer,
to be personated by the old misanthrope, whose aspect was extremely well
calculated for the purpose. The plan was immediately adjusted in all its
parts; an apartment hired in a house accommodated with a public stair,
so that people might have free ingress and egress, without being exposed
to observation; and, this tenement being furnished with the apparatus of
a magician, such as globes, telescopes, a magic-lanthorn, a skeleton, a
dried monkey together with the skins of an alligator, otter, and
snake, the conjurer himself took possession of his castle, after having
distributed printed advertisements containing the particulars of his
undertaking.

These bills soon operated according to the wish of the projectors. As
the price of the oracle was fixed at half a guinea, the public naturally
concluded that the author was no common fortune-teller; and, the very
next day, Peregrine found some ladies of his quality acquaintance
infected with the desire of making an experiment upon the skill of this
new conjurer, who pretended to be just arrived from the Mogul's empire,
where he had learned the art from a Brachman philosopher. Our young
gentleman affected to talk of the pretensions of this sage with ridicule
and contempt, and with seeming reluctance undertook to attend them to
his apartment, observing, that it would be a very easy matter to detect
the fellow's ignorance, and no more than common justice to chastise him
for his presumption. Though he could easily perceive a great fund of
credulity in the company, they affected to espouse his opinion, and,
under the notion of a frolic, agreed that one particular lady should
endeavour to baffle his art, by appearing before him in the dress of
her woman, who should at the same time personate her mistress, and be
treated as such by our adventurer, who promised to squire them to the
place. These measures being concerted, and the appointment fixed for
the next audience-day, Peregr