be opened, and he be laughed at by the
person opening it, and taken for a superstitious fool, as he had been
by me before." In June 1751, the box with the powder and pebbles
arrived at Henley, and a letter came to me the next day, wherein he
ordered me to mix the powder in tea. This some mornings after I did;
but finding that it would not mix well with tea, I flung the liquor
into which it had been thrown out of the window. I farther declare,
that looking into the cup, I saw nothing adhere to the sides of it;
nor was such an adhesion probable, as the powder swam on the top of
the liquor. My father drank two cups of tea out of that cup, before I
threw the powder into it: nor did he drink any more out of it that
morning, it being Sunday, and he fearing to drink a third cup, lest he
should be too late for church. It has been said by Susan Gunnel, at my
Trial, that she drank out of the aforesaid cup, and was very ill after
it. In answer to which, I must beg leave to observe, that she never
before would drink out of any other cup, than one which she called her
own, different from this, and which I drank out of on that and most
other mornings. It has been farther said, that Dame Emmet, a
charwoman, was likewise hurt by drinking tea at my father's house: be
pleased to remember, Reader, that I mixed it but in one cup, and then
threw it away. Susan said, she drank out of the cup and was ill, what
then could hurt this woman, who to my knowledge was not at our house
that day? Mr. Nicholas, an apothecary, attended this old woman in the
first sickness they talk of, which, by Susan, I understood was a
weakness common to her, viz. fainting fits and purging; and I know,
that she had had fainting fits many times before. When I heard she was
ill, I ordered Susan to send her whey, broth, or any thing that she
thought would be proper for her. She had long served the family, would
joke and divert me, and I loved her extremely. Nor can my enemies
themselves (let them paint me how they please) deny that from my heart
I pitied the poor. I never felt more pleasure, than when I fed the
hungry, cloathed the naked, and supplied the wants of those in
distress. Had God blessed me with a more plentiful fortune, I should
have exerted myself in this more; and I flatter myself, that the poor
and indigent of our town will do me justice in this particular, and
own that I was not wanting in my duty towards them. But to proceed in
my account: I would not fix