ge but from
pastorals and songs. He imagined that he should be transported to scenes
of flowery felicity, like those which one poet has reflected to another;
and had projected a perpetual round of innocent pleasures, of which he
suspected no interruption from pride, or ignorance, or brutality. With
these expectations he was so enchanted that when he was once gently
reproached by a friend for submitting to live upon a subscription,
and advised rather by a resolute exertion of his abilities to support
himself, he could not bear to debar himself from the happiness which
was to be found in the calm of a cottage, or lose the opportunity of
listening, without intermission, to the melody of the nightingale, which
he believed was to be heard from every bramble, and which he did not
fail to mention as a very important part of the happiness of a country
life.

While this scheme was ripening, his friends directed him to take a
lodging in the liberties of the Fleet, that he might be secure from his
creditors, and sent him every Monday a guinea, which he commonly spent
before the next morning, and trusted, after his usual manner, the
remaining part of the week to the bounty of fortune.

He now began very sensibly to feel the miseries of dependence. Those
by whom he was to be supported began to prescribe to him with an air of
authority, which he knew not how decently to resent, nor patiently
to bear; and he soon discovered from the conduct of most of his
subscribers, that he was yet in the hands of "little creatures." Of the
insolence that he was obliged to suffer he gave many instances, of which
none appeared to raise his indignation to a greater height than the
method which was taken of furnishing him with clothes. Instead of
consulting him, and allowing him to send a tailor his orders for what
they thought proper to allow him, they proposed to send for a tailor to
take his measure, and then to consult how they should equip him. This
treatment was not very delicate, nor was it such as Savage's humanity
would have suggested to him on a like occasion; but it had scarcely
deserved mention, had it not, by affecting him in an uncommon degree,
shown the peculiarity of his character. Upon hearing the design that was
formed, he came to the lodging of a friend with the most violent
agonies of rage; and, being asked what it could be that gave him such
disturbance, he replied with the utmost vehemence of indignation, "That
they had sent for