enerable grey-headed man, who had laid
down his cholic, and who, I found, wanted an heir to his estate,
snatched up an undutiful son, that had been thrown into the heap by his
angry father.

16. The graceless youth, in less than a quarter of an hour, pulled the
old gentleman by the beard, and had like to have knocked his brains out;
so that meeting the true father, who came toward him in a fit of the
gripes, he begged him to take his son again, and give him back his
cholic; but they were incapable either of them to recede from the choice
they had made.

17. A poor galley-slave, who had thrown down his chains, took up the
gout in their stead, but made such wry faces, that one might easily
perceive he was no great gainer by the bargain. It was pleasant enough
to see the several exchanges that were made, for sickness against
poverty, hunger against want of appetite, and care against pain.

18. The female world were very busy among themselves in bartering for
features; one was trucking a lock of grey hairs for a carbuncle, another
was making over a short waist for a pair of round shoulders, and a third
cheapening a bad face for a lost reputation: but on all these occasions,
there was not one of them who did not think the new blemish, as soon as
she had got it into her possession, much more disagreeable than the old
one.

19. I made the same observation on every other misfortune or calamity,
which every one in the assembly brought upon himself, in lieu of what he
had parted with; whether it be that all the evils which befall us, are
in some measure suited and proportioned to our strength, or that every
evil becomes more supportable by our being accustomed to it, I shall not
determine.

20. I could not, for my heart, forbear pitying the poor hump-backed
gentleman mentioned in the former paper, who went off a very well-shaped
person, with a stone in his bladder; nor the fine gentleman who had
struck up this bargain with him, that limped through a whole assembly of
ladies who used to admire him, with a pair of shoulders peeping over his
head.

21. I must not omit my own particular adventure. My friend with the long
visage had no sooner taken upon him my short face, but he made such a
grotesque figure in it, that, as I looked upon him, I could not forbear
laughing at myself, insomuch that I put my own face out of countenance.
The poor gentleman was so sensible of the ridicule, that I found he was
ashamed of what he had d