o any body, and is often observed to belong to every body but
themselves. It is odd, but the word nobody, and the term nothing,
although no certain ideas can be affixed to them, are often made such
use of in conversation. Philosophers have declared they knew nothing,
and it is common for us to talk about doing nothing; for, from ten to
twenty we go to school to be taught what from twenty to thirty we are
very apt to forget; from thirty to forty we begin to settle; from forty
to fifty we think away as fast as we can; from fifty to sixty we are
very careful in our accounts; and from sixty to seventy we cast up what
all our thinking comes to; and then, {15}what between our losses and our
gains, our enjoyments and our inquietudes, even with the addition of
old age, we can but strike this balance [_Takes the board with
cyphers_]--These are a number of nothings, they are hieroglyphics of
part of human kind; for in life, as well as in arithmetic, there are
a number of nothings, which, like these cyphers, mean nothing in
themselves, and are totally insignificant; but, by the addition of a
single figure at their head, they assume rank and value in an instant.
The meaning of which is, that nothing may be turned into something by
the single power of any one who is lord of a golden manor. [_Turns the
board, shews the golden one._] But, as these persons' gains come from
nothing, we may suppose they will come to nothing; and happy are they
who, amidst the variations of nothing, have nothing to fear: if they
have nothing to lose, they have nothing to lament; and, if they have
done nothing to be ashamed of, they have every thing to hope for. Thus
concludes the dissertation upon nothing, which the exhibitor hopes he
has properly executed, by making nothing of it.

{16}This is the head of a London Blood, taken from the life. [_Holds the
head up._] He wears a bull's forehead for a fore-top, in commemoration
of that great blood of antiquity, called Jupiter, who turned himself
into a bull to run away with Europa: and to this day bloods are
very fond of making beasts of themselves. He imagined that all mirth
consisted in doing mischief, therefore he would throw a waiter out of
the window, and bid him to be put into the reckoning, toss a beggar in
a blanket, play at chuck with china plates, run his head against a wall,
hop upon one leg for an hour together, carry a red-hot poker round the
room between his teeth, and say, "done first for fifty.