idem.--EDITOR.]--"flies that feed on the sore part, and would have
nothing to live on were the body in health."--[Tatler].



VII.

Every man finds it desirable to have tears in his eyes at times,--one has
a sympathy with humid lids. Providence hath beneficially provided for
this want, and given to every man, in its divine forethought, misfortunes
painful to recall. Hence, probably, those human calamities which the
atheist rails against! Wherefore, when you are uttering some affecting
sentiment to your intended dupe, think of the greatest misfortune you
ever had in your life; habit will soon make the association of tears and
that melancholy remembrance constantly felicitous. I knew, my dear
pupils, a most intelligent Frenchman, who obtained a charming legacy from
an old poet by repeating the bard's verses with streaming eyes. "How
were you able to weep at will?" asked I (I was young then, my pupils).
"Je pensois," answered he, "a mon pauvre pere, qui est mort." The union
of sentiment with the ability of swindling made that Frenchman a most
fascinating creature!



VIII.

Never commit the error of the over-shrewd, and deem human nature worse
than it is. Human nature is so damnably good that if it were not for
human art, we knaves could not live. The primary elements of a man's
mind do not sustain us; it is what he owes to "the pains taken with his