vation.
He, therefore, detached himself from their parties as much as he could,
without giving offence to those among whom he was obliged to live, and
resumed his labours with incredible eagerness and perseverance, his
spirits being supported by the success of some severe philippics, which
he occasionally published against the author of his misfortune.

Nor was his humanity unemployed in the vacations of his revenge. A man
must be void of all sympathy and compassion, who can reside among so
many miserable objects, without feeling an inclination to relieve their
distress. Every day almost presented to his view such lamentable scenes
as were most likely to attract his notice, and engage his benevolence.
Reverses of fortune, attended with the most deplorable circumstances of
domestic woe, were continually intruding upon his acquaintance; his ears
were invaded with the cries of the hapless wife, who, from the enjoyment
of affluence and pleasure, was forced to follow her husband to this
abode of wretchedness and want; his eyes were every minute assailed
with the naked and meagre appearances of hunger and cold; and his fancy
teemed with a thousand aggravations of their misery.

Thus situated, his purse was never shut while his heart remained open.
Without reflecting upon the slenderness of his store, he exercised his
charity to all the children of distress, and acquired a popularity,
which, though pleasing, was far from being profitable. In short, his
bounty kept no pace with his circumstances, and in a little time he was
utterly exhausted. He had recourse to his bookseller, from whom, with
great difficulty, he obtained a small reinforcement; and immediately
relapsed into the same want of retention. He was conscious of his
infirmity, and found it incurable: he foresaw that by his own industry
he should never be able to defray the expense of these occasions; and
this reflection sunk deep into his mind. The approbation of the public,
which he had earned or might acquire like a cordial often repeated,
began to lose its effect upon his imagination; his health suffered by
his sedentary life and austere application, his eyesight failed, his
appetite forsook him, his spirits decayed; so that he became melancholy,
listless, and altogether incapable of prosecuting the only means he had
left for his subsistence; and, what did not at all contribute to the
alleviation of these particulars, he was given to understand by his
lawyer, that