At the age of twenty-one, a young gentleman of fome fortune paid his addreffes to me, and offered me terms of marriage. This proposal I should readily have accepted, because from vicinity of refidence, and from many opportunities of obferving his behaviour, I had in fome fort contracted an affection for him. My uncle, for what reafon I do not know, refused his confent to this alliance, though it would have been complied with by the father of the young gentleman; and as the future condition of my life was wholly dependent on him, I was not willing to difoblige him, and therefore, though unwillingly, declined the offer.

My uncle, who poffeffed a plentiful fortune, frequently hinted to me in converfation, that at his death I fhould be provided for in fuch a manner that I fhould be able to make my future life comfortable and happy. As this promife was often the less anxious about was repeated, I provifion for myself. In a fhort time my uncle was taken ill, and though all poffible means were made ufe of for his recovery, in a few days he died.

any

The forrow arifing from the lofs of a relation, by whom I had been always treated with the greatest kindness, however grievous, was not the worft of my misfortunes. As he enjoyed an almoft uninterrupted ftate of health, he was the less mindful of his diffolution, and died inteftate; by which means his whole fortune devolved to a nearer relation, the heir at law.

CC 4

Thus

Thus excluded from all hopes of living in the manner with which I have fo long flattered myself, I am doubtful what method I fhall take to procure a decent maintenance. I have been educated in a manner that has fet me above a state of servitude, and my fituation renders me unfit for the company of those with whom I have hitherto converfed. But, though difappointed in my expectations, I do not despair. I will hope that affiftance may still be obtained for innocent diftress, and that friendship, though rare, is yet not impoffible to be found.

I am, SIR,

Your humble fervant,

SOPHIA HEEDfull,

NUMB.

NUMB. 99. SATURDAY, March 8, 1760,

A

S Ortogrul of Bafra was one day wandering

along the streets of Bagdat, mufing on the varieties of merchandise which the fhops offered to his view, and obferving the different occupations which bufied the multitudes on every fide, he was awakened from the tranquillity of meditation by a crowd that obstructed his paffage. He raised his eyes, and faw the chief vifier, who, having returned from the divan, was entering his palace.

Ortogrul mingled with the attendants, and being fuppofed to have fome petition for the vifier, was permitted to enter. He furveyed the fpaciousness of the apartments, admired the walls hung with golden tapestry, and the floors covered with filken carpets, and despised the fimple neatness of his own little habitation.

Surely, faid he to himself, this palace is the feat of happiness, where pleasure fucceeds to pleafure, and difcontent and forrow can have no admiffion, Whatever Nature has provided for the delight of fenfe, is here fpread forth to be enjoyed. What can mortals hope or imagine, which the mafter of this palace has not obtained? The dishes of Luxury cover his table, the voice of Harmony lulls him in his bowers; he breathes the fragrance of the groves of Java, and fleeps upon the down

of

of the cygnets of Ganges. He fpeaks, and his mandate is obeyed; he wishes, and his wifh is gratified; all whom he fees obey him, and all whom he hears flatter him. How different, Ortogrul, is thy condition, who art doomed to the perpetual torments of unfatisfied defire, and who haft no amufement in thy power that can withhold thee from thy own reflections! They tell thee that thou art wife; but what does wifdom avail with poverty? None will flatter the poor, and the wife have very little power of flattering themselves. That man is furely the most wretched of the fons of wretched, nefs, who lives with his own faults and follies always before him, and who has none to reconcile him to himself by praife and veneration. I have long fought content, and have not found it; I will from this moment endeavour to be rich.

Full of his new refolution, he fhut himself in his chamber for fix months, to deliberate how he should grow rich; he fometimes propofed to offer himself as a counsellor to one of the kings of India, and fometimes refolved to dig for diamonds in the mines of Golconda. One day, after fome hours paffed in violent fluctuation of opinion, fleep infenfibly feized him in his chair; he dreamed that he was ranging a defert country in fearch of fome one that might teach him to grow rich; and as he ftood on the top of a hill fhaded with cypress, in doubt whither to direct his fteps, his father appeared on a fudden ftanding before him. Ortogrul, faid the old man, I know thy perplexity; liften to thy father; turn thine eye on the oppofite moun tain. Ortogrul looked, and faw a torrent tumbling down

down the rocks, roaring with the noife of thunder, and scattering its foam on the impending woods. Now, faid his father, behold the valley that lies between the hills. Ortogrul looked, and espied a little well, out of which iffued a fmall rivulet. Tell me now, faid his father, doft thou wish for fudden affluence, that may pour upon thee like the mountain torrent, or for a flow and gradual encrease, refembling the rill gliding from the well? Let me be quickly rich, faid Ortogrul; let the golden ftream be quick and violent. Look round thee, faid his father, once again. Ortogrul looked, and perceived the channel of the torrent dry and dufty; but following the rivulet from the well, he traced it to a wide lake, which the fupply, flow and conftant, kept always full. He waked, and determined to grow rich by filent profit, and perfevering industry.

Having fold his patrimony, he engaged in merchandife, and in twenty years purchafed lands, on which he raised a houfe, equal in fumptuoufness to that of the vifier, to which he invited all the minifters of pleasure, expecting to enjoy all the felicity which he had imagined riches able to afford. Leifure foon made him weary of himself, and he longed to be perfuaded that he was great and happy. He was courteous and liberal; he gave all that approached him hopes of pleafing him, and all who fhould please him hopes of being rewarded. Every art of praise was tried, and every fource of adulatory fiction was exhaufted. Ortogrul heard his flatterers without delight, because he found himself unable to believe them. His own heart told him its frail