c and rash, so that he may be concerned in a duel.
Then there are such things as riots in the street, in which a rake's
skull may be casually cracked; he may be overturned in a coach, overset
in the river, thrown from a vicious horse, overtaken with a cold,
endangered by a surfeit; but what I place my chief confidence in, is an
hearty pox, a distemper which hath been fatal to his whole family. Not
but that the issue of all these things is uncertain, and expedients
might be found which would more effectually answer the purpose. I know
they have arts in India, by which a man can secure his own interest, in
the salutation of a friendly shake by the hand; and I don't doubt that
you, who have lived in that country, are master of the secret. To be
sure, if you were inclined to communicate such a nostrum, there are
abundance of people who would purchase it at a very high price."

Cadwallader understood this insinuation, and was tempted to amuse him
in such a manner as would tend to his disgrace and confusion; but,
considering that the case was of too criminal a nature to be tampered
with, he withstood his desire of punishing this rapacious cormorant any
other way than by telling him he would not impart the secret for his
whole for-tune ten times doubled; so that the usurer retired, very much
dissatisfied with the issue of his consultation.

The next person who presented himself at this altar of intelligence,
was an author, who recommended himself to a gratis advice, by observing,
that a prophet and poet were known by the same appellation among the
ancients; and that, at this day, both the one and the other spoke by
inspiration. The conjurer refused to own this affinity, which, he said,
formerly subsisted, because both species of the vates were the children
of fiction; but as he himself did not fall under that predicament, he
begged leave to disown all connection with the family of the poets; and
the poor author would have been dismissed without his errand, though he
offered to leave an ode as security for the magician's fee, to be
paid from the profits of his first third night, had not Cadwallader's
curiosity prompted him to know the subject of this gentleman's inquiry.
He therefore told him, that, in consideration of his genius, he would
for once satisfy him without a fee; and desired him to specify the
doubts in which he wished to be resolved.

The son of Parnassus, glad of this condescension, for which he thanked
the necr