the first opportunity. But none of these great designs could at present be put in execution; for Mr Snap being soon after summoned abroad on business of great moment, which required likewise the assistance of Mr Wild the Elder and his other friend, and as he did not care to trust to the nimbleness of the Count's heels, of which he had already had some experience, he declared he must lock up for that evening. Here, reader, if thou pleasest, as we are in no great haste, we will stop and make a simile. As when their lap is finished, the cautious huntsman to their kennel gathers the nimble-footed hounds; they with lank ears and tails slouch sullenly on, whilst he with his whippers-in follows close to their heels, regardless of their dogged humour, till having seen them safe within the door, he turns the key, and then retires to whatever business or pleasure calls him thence; so, with lowering countenance, and reluctant steps, mounted the Count and Bagshot to their chamber, or rather kennel, whither they were attended by Snap, and those who followed him, and where Snap having seen them deposited, very contentedly locked the door and departed. And now, reader, we will, in imitation of the truly laudable custom of the world, leave these our good friends to deliver themselves as they can, and pursue the thriving fortunes of Wild our hero, who with that great aversion to satisfaction and content, which is inseparably incident to great minds, began to enlarge his views with his prosperity; for this restless amiable disposition, this noble avidity which increases with feeding, is the first principle or constituent quality of these our great men; to whom, in their passage on to greatness, it happens as to a traveller over the Alps; or, if this be a too far-fetched simile, to one who travels westward over the hills near Bath, where the simile was indeed made: he sees not the end of his journey at once; but passing on from scheme to scheme, and from hill to hill, with noble constancy, resolving still to attain the summit on which he hath fixed his eye, however dirty the roads may be through which he struggles, he at length arrives at some vile inn, where he finds no kind of entertainment or conveniency for repose. I fancy, reader, if thou hast ever travelled in these roads, one part of my simile is sufficiently apparent, (and indeed, in all these illustrations, one side is generally much more apparent than the other,) but, believe me, if the other doth not so evidently appear to thy satisfaction, it is from no other reason, than because thou art unacquainted with these Great Men, and hast not had sufficient instruction, leisure, or opportunity, to consider what happens to those who pursue what is generally understood by GREATNESS; for surely, if thou hadst animadverted not only on the many perils to which Great Men are daily liable, while they are in their progress, but hadst discerned, as it were through a microscope, (for it is invisible to the naked eye,) that diminutive speck

VOL. I.

of happiness which they attain even in the consummation of their wishes, thou wouldst lament with me the unhappy fate of these Great Men on whom Nature hath set so superior a mark, that the rest of mankind are born for their use and emolument only, and be apt to cry out, "It is pity that THOSE, for whose pleasure and profit mankind are to labour and sweat, to be hacked and hewed, to be pillaged, plundered, and every way destroyed, should reap So LITTLE advantage from all the miseries they occasion to others." For my part, I own myself of that humble kind of mortals who consider themselves born for the behoof of some great man or other; and could I behold his happiness carved out of the labour and ruin of a thousand such reptiles as myself, I might with satisfaction exclaim, Sic, sic juvat: but when I behold one Great Man starving with hunger, and freezing with cold, in the midst of fifty thousand who are suffering the same evils for his diversion; when I see another, whose own mind is a more abject slave to his own greatness, and is more tortured and racked by it than those of all his vassals; lastly, when I consider whole nations rooted out only to bring tears into the eyes of a Great Man, not indeed because he hath extirpated so many, but because he had no more nations to extirpate; then truly I am almost inclined to wish that Nature had spared us this her MASTERPIECE, and that no GREAT MAN had ever been born into the world.

But to proceed with our history, which will, we hope, produce much better lessons, and more instructive than any we can preach. Wild was no sooner retired to a night-cellar than he began to reflect on the sweets he had that day enjoyed from the labours of others; viz. First, from Mr Bagshot, who had for his use robbed the Count; and, secondly, from the gentleman, who, for the same good purpose, had picked the pocket of Bagshot. He then proceeded to reason thus with himself: "The art of policy is the art of multiplication; the degrees of greatness being constituted by those two little words, More and Less. Mankind are first properly to be considered under two grand divisions, those that use their own hands, and those who employ the hands of others. The former are the base and rabble; the latter, the genteel part of the creation. The mercantile part of the world, therefore, wisely use the term employing hands, and justly prefer each other, as they employ more or fewer; for thus one merchant says he is greater than another, because he employs more hands. And now, indeed, the merchant should seem to challenge some character of greatness, did we not necessarily come to a second division, viz. Of those who employ hands for the use of the community in which they live, and of those who employ hands merely for their own use, without any regard to the benefit of society. Of the former sort are the yeoman, the manufacturer, the merchant, and, perhaps, the gentleman. The 3 A

first of these being to manure and cultivate his native soil, and to employ hands to produce the fruits of the earth; the second being to improve them by employing hands likewise, and to produce from them those useful commodities which serve as well for the conveniencies as necessaries of life; the third is to employ hands for the exportation of the redundance of our own commodities, and to exchange them with the redundances of foreign nations, that thus every soil and every climate may enjoy the fruits of the whole earth. The gentleman is, by employing hands likewise, to embellish his country with the improvement of arts and sciences, with the making and executing good and wholesome laws for the preservation of property, and the distribution of justice, and in several other manners to be useful to society. Now we come to the second part of this division, viz. Of those who employ hands for their own use only; and this is that noble and great part, who are generally distinguished into Conquerors, absolute Princes, Statesmen, and Prigs. Now, all these differ from each other in greatness only, as they employ more or fewer hands; and Alexander the Great was only greater than a captain of one of the Tartarian or Arabian hordes, as he was at the head of a larger number. In what then is a single Prig inferior to any other great man, but because he employs his own hands only? for he is not on that account to be levelled with the base and vulgar, because he employs his hands for his own use only. Now, suppose a Prig had as many tools as any prime minister ever had, would he not be as great as any prime minister whatsoever? Undoubtedly he would. What then have I to do in the pursuit of greatness, but to procure a gang, and to make the use of this gang centre in myself? This gang shall rob for me only, receiving very moderate rewards for their actions; out of this gang I will prefer to my favour the boldest and most iniquitous, as the vulgar express it, and the rest I will, from time to time, as I see occasion, transport and hang at my pleasure: and thus, which I take to be the highest excellence of a Prig, convert those laws, which are made for the benefit and protection of society, to my single use."

Having thus preconceived his scheme, he saw nothing wanting to put it in immediate execu

tion, but that which is indeed the beginning as well as the end of all human devices, I mean money; of which commodity he was possessed of no more than sixty-five guineas, being all that remained from the double benefits he had made of Bagshot, and which did not seem sufficient to furnish his house, and every other convenience necessary for so grand an undertaking. He resolved, therefore, to go immediately to the gaming-house, which was then sitting, not so much with an intention of trusting to fortune, as to play the surer card of attacking the winner in his way home. On his arrival, however, he thought he might as well try his success at the dice, and reserve the other recourse as his last expedient. He accordingly sat down to play; and as Fortune, no more than others of her sex, is observed to distribute her favours with strict regard to great mental endowments, so our hero lost every farthing in his pocket. This loss, however, he bore with great constancy of mind, and with as great composure of aspect. To say truth, he considered the money as only lent for a short time, or rather indeed as deposited with a banker. He then resolved to have immediate recourse to his surer stratagem; and casting his eyes round the room, he soon perceived a gentleman sitting in a disconsolate posture, who seemed a proper instrument or tool for his purpose. In short, to be as concise as possible in these least shining parts of our history, Wild accosted this man, sounded him, found him fit to execute, proposed the matter, received a ready assent, and having fixed on the person who seemed that evening the greatest favourite of Fortune, they posted themselves in the most proper place to surprise the enemy as he was retiring to his quarters, where he was soon attacked, subdued, and plundered; but indeed of no considerable booty; for it seems this gentleman played on a common stock, and had deposited his winnings at the scene of action; nor had he any more than two shillings in his pocket when he was attacked.

This was so cruel a disappointment to Wild, and so sensibly affects us, as no doubt it will the reader, that as it must disqualify us both from proceeding any farther at present, we will now take a little breath; and therefore we shall here close this Book.

CHAP. I.

two children. As our reader is to be more acquainted with this person, it may not be improper to open somewhat of his character, especially as it will serve as a kind of foil to the noble

for which such are designed.

ONE reason why we chose to end our First Book as we did, with the last chapter, was, that we are now obliged to produce two characters of a stamp entirely different from what we have hitherto dealt in. These persons are of that pitiful order of mortals who are, in contempt, called good-natured; being indeed sent into the world by Nature, with the same design with which men put little fish into a pike-pond, in order to be devoured by that voracious waterhero.

But to proceed with our history. Wild having shared the booty in much the same manner as before, i. e. taken three-fourths of it, amounting to eighteen pence, was now retiring to rest, in no very happy mood, when by accident he met a young fellow who had formerly been his companion, and indeed intimate friend at school. It hath been thought that friendship is usually nursed by similitude of manners; but the contrary had been the case between these lads; for whereas Wild was rapacious and intrepid, the other had always more regard for his skin than his money; Wild therefore had very generously compassionated this defect in his school-fellow, and had brought him off from many scrapes, into most of which he had first drawn him, by taking the fault and whipping to himself. He had always indeed been well paid on such occasions; but there are a sort of people who, together with the best of the bargain, will be sure to have the obligation too on their side. So it had happened here: for this poor lad consider ed himself in the highest degree obliged to Mr Wild, and had contracted a very great esteem and friendship for him; the traces of which an absence of many years had not in the least effaced in his mind. He no sooner knew Wild, therefore, than he accosted him in the most friendly manner, and invited him home with him to breakfast, it being now near nine in the morning, which invitation our hero with no great difficulty consented to. This young man, who was about Wild's age, had some time before set up in the trade of a jeweller, in the materials or stock for which he had laid out the greatest part of a little fortune, and had married a very agreeable woman for love, by whom he then had

seems sent into this world as a proper object on which the talents of the other were to be displayed with a proper and just success.

Mr Thomas Heartfree, then, for that was his name, was of an honest and open disposition. He was of that sort of men whom experience only, and not their own natures, must inform that there are such things as deceit and hypocrisy in the world; and who, consequently, are not at five-and-twenty as difficult to be imposed upon as the oldest and most subtile. He was possessed of several great weaknesses of mind; being good-natured, friendly, and generous to a great excess. He had indeed too little regard to common justice, for he had forgiven some debts to his acquaintance, only because they could not pay him; and had entrusted a bankrupt on his setting up a second time, from having been convinced that he had dealt in his bankruptcy with a fair and honest heart, and that he had broke through misfortune only, and not from neglect or imposture. He was withal so silly a fellow, that he never took the least advantage of the ignorance of his customers, and contented himself with very moderate gains on his goods; which he was the better enabled to do, notwithstanding his generosity, because his life was extremely temperate, his expences being solely confined to the chearful entertainment of his friends at home, and now and then a moderate glass of wine, in which he indulged himself in the company of his wife, who, with an agreeable person, was a mean-spirited, poor, domestic, low-bred animal, who confined herself mostly to the care of her family, placed her happiness in her husband and her children, followed no expensive fashions or diversions, and indeed rarely went abroad, unless to return the visits of a few plain neighbours; and twice a-year afforded herself, in company with her husband, the diversion of a play, where she never sat in a higher place than the pit.

To this silly woman did this silly fellow introduce the GREAT WILD, informing her at the same time of their school-acquaintance, and the many obligations he had received from him. This simple woman no sooner heard her husband had been obliged to her guest, than her eyes sparkled on him with a benevolence, which is an emanation from the heart, and of which

great and noble minds, whose hearts never swell but with an injury, can have no very adequate idea. It is therefore no wonder that our hero should misconstrue, as he did, the poor, innocent, and simple affection of Mrs Heartfree towards her husband's friend, for that great and generous passion which fires the eyes of a modern heroine, when the colonel is so kind as to indulge his city-creditor with partaking of his table to-day, and of his bed to-morrow. Wild therefore instantly returned the compliment, as he understood it, with his eyes, and presently after bestowed many encomiums on her beauty, with which perhaps she, who was a woman, though a good one, and misapprehended the design, was not displeased, any more than her husband.

When breakfast was ended, and the wife tetired to her household affairs, Wild, who had a quick discernment into the weaknesses of men, and who, besides the knowledge of his good (or foolish) disposition when a boy, had now discovered several sparks of goodness, friendship, and generosity in his friend, began to discourse over the accidents which had happened in their childhood, and took frequent occasions of reminding him of those favours which we have before mentioned his having conferred on him; he then proceeded to the most vehement professions of friendship, and to the most ardent expressions of joy in this renewal of their acquaintance. He at last told him, with great seeming pleasure, that he believed he had an opportunity of serving him by the recommendation of a gentleman to his custom who was then on the brink of marriage; and, if he be not already engaged, "I will," says he, "endeavour to prevail on him to furnish his lady with jewels at your shop."

Heartfree was not backward in thanks to our hero; and, after many earnest solicitations to dinner, which were refused, they parted for the first time.

But here, as it occurs to our memory that our readers may be surprised (an accident which sometimes happens in histories of this kind) how Mr Wild the Elder, in his present capacity, should have been able to maintain his son at a reputable school, as this appears to have been, it may be necessary to inform him, that Mr Wild himself was then a tradesman in good business; but, by misfortunes in the world, to wit, extravagance and gaming, he had reduced himself to that honourable occupation which we have formerly mentioned.

Having cleared up this doubt, we will now pursue our hero, who forthwith repaired to the Count, and having first settled preliminary articles concerning distributions, he acquainted him with the scheme which he had formed against Heartfree; and after consulting proper methods to put it in execution, they began to concert measures for the enlargement of the Count; on which the first, and indeed only point to be con

sidered, was to raise money, not to pay his debts, for that would have required an immense sum, and was contrary to his inclination or intention, but to procure him bail; for as to his escape, Mr Snap had taken such precautions, that it appeared absolutely impossible.

CHAP. II.

Great examples of GREATNESS in Wild, shewn as well by his behaviour to Bagshot, as in a scheme laid, first to impose on Heartfree by means of the Count, and then to cheat the Count of the booty.

WILD undertook, therefore, to extract some money from Bagshot, who, notwithstanding the depredations made on him, had carried off a pretty considerable booty from their engagement at dice the preceding day. He found Mr Bagshot in expectation of his bail, and, with a countenance full of concern, which he could at any time, with wonderful art, put on, told him, that all was discovered; that the Count knew him, and intended to prosecute him for the robbery, had not I exerted (said he) my utmost interest, and with great difficulty prevailed on him, in case you refund the money- "Refund the money!" cried Bagshot-" that is in your power; for you know what an inconsiderable part of it fell to my share."-" How!” replied Wild, “is this your gratitude to me for saving your life? for your own conscience must convince you of your guilt, and with how much certainty the gentleman can give evidence against you."

66

Marry come up!" quoth Bagshot, "I believe my life alone will not be in danger. I know those who are as guilty as myself. Do you tell me of conscience?"-"Yes, sirrah!" answered our hero, taking him by the collar; "and since you dare threaten me, I will shew you the difference between committing a robbery and conniving at it, which is all I can charge myself with. I own indeed I suspected, when you shewed me a sum of money, that you had not come honestly by it."-" How!" says Bagshot, frightened out of one half of his wits, and amazed out of the other; can you deny?"-" Yes, you rascal," answered Wild, "I do deny every thing, and do you find a witness to prove it; and, to shew you how little apprehensions I have of your power to hurt me, I will have you apprehended this moment." At which words he offered to break from him; but Bagshot laid hold of his skirts, and, with an altered tone and manner, begged him not to be so impatient. "Refund then, sirrah," cries Wild, "and perhaps I may take pity on you."-" What must I refund ?” answered Bagshot." Every farthing in your pocket,” replied Wild; "then I may have some compassion on you, and not only save your life, but, out of an excess of generosity, may retura