university that Prior became
ambassador, or Addison a secretary of state.

7. This desire was hourly increased by the solicitation of my
companions, who removing one by one to London, as the caprice of their
relations allowed them, or the legal dismission from the hands of their
guardian put it in their power, never failed to send an account of the
beauty and felicity of the new world, and to remonstrate how much was
lost by every hour's continuance in a place of retirement and restraint.

8. My uncle, in the mean time, frequently harrassed me with monitory
letters, which I sometimes neglected to open for a week after I received
them, and generally read in a tavern, with such comments as I might show
how much I was superior to instruction or advice. I could not but
wonder, how a man confined to the country and unacquainted with the
present system of things, should imagine himself qualified to instruct a
rising genius, born to give laws to the age, refine its state, and
multiply its pleasures.

9. The postman, however, still continued to bring me new remonstrances;
for my uncle was very little depressed by the ridicule and reproach
which he never heard. But men of parts have quick resentments; it was
impossible to bear his usurpations for ever; and I resolved, once for
all, to make him an example to those who imagine themselves wise because
they are old, and to teach young men, who are too tame under
representation, in what manner grey-bearded insolence ought to be
treated.

10. I therefore one evening took my pen in hand, and after having
animated myself with a catch, wrote a general answer to all his
precepts, with such vivacity of turn, such elegance of irony, and such
asperity of sarcasm, that I convulsed a large company with universal
laughter, disturbing the neighbourhood with vociferations of applause,
and five days afterwards was answered, that I must be content to live
upon my own estate.

11. This contraction of my income gave me no disturbance, for a genius
like mine was out of the reach of want. I had friends that would be
proud to open their purses at my call, and prospects of such advancement
as would soon reconcile my uncle, whom, upon mature deliberation, I
resolved to receive into favour, without insisting on any acknowledgment
of his offence, when the splendor of my condition should induce him to
wish for my countenance.

12. I therefore went up to London before I had shewn the alteration of
my