hem thought it worth the
trial. That they were not restrained by virtue from the execution of
another man's design, was sufficiently apparent, as soon as that
design began to be gainful; for, in a few years, a multitude of
magazines arose and perished: only the London Magazine, supported by a
powerful association of booksellers, and circulated with all the art
and all the cunning of trade, exempted itself from the general fate of
Cave's invaders, and obtained, though not an equal, yet a considerable
sale [61].

Cave now began to aspire to popularity; and being a greater lover of
poetry than any other art, he sometimes offered subjects for poems,
and proposed prizes for the best performers. The first prize was fifty
pounds, for which, being but newly acquainted with wealth, and
thinking the influence of fifty pounds extremely great, he expected
the first authors of the kingdom to appear as competitors; and offered
the allotment of the prize to the universities. But, when the time
came, no name was seen among the writers that had ever been seen
before; the universities and several private men rejected the province
of assigning the prize. At all this Mr. Cave wondered for awhile; but
his natural judgment, and a wider acquaintance with the world, soon
cured him of his astonishment, as of many other prejudices and
errours. Nor have many men been seen raised by accident or industry to
sudden riches, that retained less of the meanness of their former
state.

He continued to improve his magazine, and had the satisfaction of
seeing its success proportionate to his diligence, till, in 1751, his
wife died of an asthma. He seemed not at first much affected by her
death, but in a few days lost his sleep and his appetite, which he
never recovered; but, after having lingered about two years, with many
vicissitudes of amendment and relapse, fell, by drinking acid liquors,
into a diarrhoea, and afterwards into a kind of lethargick
insensibility, in which one of the last acts of reason, which he
exerted, was fondly to press the hand that is now writing this little
narrative. He died on the 10th of January, 1754, having just concluded
the twenty-third annual collection [62].

He was a man of a large stature, not only tall but bulky, and was,
when young, of remarkable strength and activity. He was, generally,
healthful, and capable of much labour and long application; but in the
latter years of his life was afflicted with the gout, whi