his promise to a creditor; he was benevolent, but always deceived those
friends whom he undertook to patronize or assist; he was prudent, but
suffered his affairs to be embarrassed for want of settling his accounts
at stated times.

14. He courted a young lady, and when the settlements were drawn, took a
ramble into the country on the day appointed to sign them. He resolved
to travel, and sent his chests on ship-board, but delayed to follow them
till he lost his passage. He was summoned as an evidence in a cause of
great importance, and loitered in the way till the trial was past. It is
said, that when he had with great expense formed an interest in a
borough, his opponent contrived by some agents, who knew his temper, to
lure him away on the day of election.

15. His benevolence draws him into the commission of thousand crimes,
which others, less kind or civil, would escape. His courtesy invites
application, his promises produce dependence: he has his pockets filled
with petitions, which he intends some time to deliver and enforce; and
his table covered with letters of request, with which he purposes to
comply; but time slips imperceptibly away, while he is either idle or
busy: his friends lose their opportunities, and charge upon him their
miscarriages and calamities.

This character, however contemptible, is not peculiar to _Aliger_.

16. They whose activity of imagination is often shifting the scenes of
expectation, are frequently subject to such sallies of caprice as to
make all their actions fortuitous, destroy the value of their
friendship, obstruct the efficacy of their virtues, and set them below
the meanest of those that persist in their resolutions, execute what