ed to me to have suffered some great
disappointment. Upon inquiry, I found he had put twopence for himself
and his son into the lottery and that neither of them had drawn the
thousand pound. Hereupon this unlucky person took occasion to enumerate
the misfortunes of his life, and concluded with telling me, that he
never was successful in any of his undertakings. I was forced to comfort
him with the common reflection upon such occasions, that men of the
greatest merit are not always men of the greatest success, and that
persons of his character must not expect to be as happy as fools. I
shall proceed in the like manner with my rivals and competitors for the
thousand pounds a year which we are now in pursuit of; and that I may
give general content to the whole body of candidates, I shall allow all
that draw prizes to be fortunate, and all that miss them to be wise.

I must not here omit to acknowledge, that I have received several
letters upon this subject, but find one common error running through
them all, which is, that the writers of them believe their fate in these
cases depends upon the astrologer, and not upon the stars, as in the
following letter from one, who, I fear, flatters himself with hopes of
success, which are altogether groundless, since he does not seem to me
so great a fool as he takes himself to be:

"SIR,

"Coming to town, and finding my friend Mr. Partridge dead and
buried, and you the only conjurer in repute, I am under a necessity
of applying myself to you for a favour, which nevertheless I
confess it would better become a friend to ask, than one who is, as
I am altogether, a stranger to you; but poverty, you know, is
impudent; and as that gives me the occasion, so that alone could
give me the confidence to be thus importunate.

"I am, sir, very poor, and very desirous to be otherwise: I have
got ten pounds, which I design to venture in the lottery now on
foot. What I desire of you is, that by your art, you will choose
such a ticket for me as shall arise a benefit sufficient to
maintain me. I must beg leave to inform you, that I am good for
nothing, and must therefore insist upon a larger lot than would
satisfy those who are capable by their own abilities of adding
something to what you should assign them; whereas I must expect an
absolute, independent maintenance, because, as I said, I can do
nothing. 'Tis