y-one; and as the trader is made bankrupt for
absence from his abode, so shall the gentleman for being at home, if,
when Mr. Morphew calls, he cannot give him an exact account of what
passes in his own family. After this fair warning, no one ought to think
himself hardly dealt with, if I take upon me to pronounce him no longer
master of his estate, wife, or family, than he continues to improve,
cherish, and maintain them upon the basis of his own property, without
incursions upon his neighbour in any of these particulars.

According to that excellent philosopher Epictetus, we are all but acting
parts in a play; and it is not a distinction in itself to be high or
low, but to become the parts we are to perform. I am by my office
prompter on this occasion, and shall give those who are a little out in
their parts such soft hints as may help them to proceed, without letting
it be known to the audience they were out: but if they run quite out of
character, they must be called off the stage, and receive parts more
suitable to their genius. Servile complaisance shall degrade a man from
his honour and quality, and haughtiness be yet more debased. Fortune
shall no longer appropriate distinctions, but Nature direct us in the
disposition both of respect and discountenance. As there are tempers
made for command, and others for obedience; so there are men born for
acquiring possessions, and others incapable of being other than mere
lodgers in the houses of their ancestors, and have it not in their very
composition to be proprietors of anything. These men are moved only by
the mere effects of impulse: their goodwill and disesteem are to be
regarded equally, for neither is the effect of their judgment. This
loose temper is that which makes a man, what Sallust so well remarks to
happen frequently in the same person, to be covetous of what is
another's, and profuse of what is his own.[297] This sort of men is
usually amiable to ordinary eyes; but in the sight of reason, nothing is
laudable but what is guided by reason. The covetous prodigal is of all
others the worst man in society: if he would but take time to look into
himself, he would find his soul all over gashed with broken vows and
promises, and his retrospect on his actions would not consist of
reflections upon those good resolutions after mature thought, which are
the true life of a reasonable creature, but the nauseous memory of
imperfect pleasures, idle dreams, and occasional a