now my fortune to seek in the world. I have been used ill enough, God
knows. But I bear no malice; my heart is at peace with all mankind; and
I forgive every body. It is like enough that poor Leonard and I may have
hardship enough to undergo, among strangers, and being obliged to hide
ourselves like housebreakers or highwaymen. But I defy all the malice of
fortune to make us do an ill thing. That consolation we will always keep
against all the crosses of a heart-breaking world.

"God bless you!
So prays,
Your honour's humble servant to command,
BENJAMIN HAWKINS."

I read this letter with considerable attention, and it occasioned me
many reflections. To my way of thinking it contained a very interesting
picture of a blunt, downright, honest mind. "It is a melancholy
consideration," said I to myself; "but such is man! To have judged from
appearances one would have said, this is a fellow to have taken
fortune's buffets and rewards with an incorruptible mind. And yet see
where it all ends! This man was capable of afterwards becoming a
murderer, and finished his life at the gallows. O poverty! thou art
indeed omnipotent! Thou grindest us into desperation; thou confoundest
all our boasted and most deep-rooted principles; thou fillest us to the
very brim with malice and revenge, and renderest us capable of acts of
unknown horror! May I never be visited by thee in the fulness of thy
power!"

Having satisfied my curiosity with respect to this paper, I took care to
dispose of it in such a manner as that it should be found by Mr.
Falkland; at the same time that, in obedience to the principle which at
present governed me with absolute dominion, I was willing that the way
in which it offered itself to his attention should suggest to him the
idea that it had possibly passed through my hands. The next morning I
saw him, and I exerted myself to lead the conversation, which by this
time I well knew how to introduce, by insensible degrees to the point I
desired. After several previous questions, remarks, and rejoinders, I
continued:--

"Well, sir, after all, I cannot help feeling very uncomfortably as to my
ideas of human nature, when I find that there is no dependence to be
placed upon its perseverance, and that, at least among the illiterate,
the most promising appearances may end in the foulest disgrace."

"You think, then, that literature and a cultivated mind are the only
assuran