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present obliged to honour fome wealthy inhabi tants of this province, so far as to receive from them the means of fubfiftence. Emboldened, perhaps, by this circumftance, one of thofe per fons lately prefumed to ask my daughter in marriage, telling me, that their hearts had long been united by every tie of the most tender affection. But I drove the vile plebeian from my prefence; and, had I not been prevented, would have fa crificed him to my juft indignation.".

At the close of this narrative, the Governor hefitated for a moment, and then ordered the guards to conduct this noble personage to the hofpital fet apart for the reception of lunatics.

A gentleman, whose train and whofe appearance bespoke his confequence, now approached the throne, with a look and manner polished at the fame time and affured. "I prefume," faid he to the Governor, "You are not unacquainted with the name of Zoroes. In that council which the wisdom of our Sovereign has established for the government of his Ethiopian dominions, I hold a diftinguished place; a fituation which I owe to my own talents, having neither the influence of hereditary wealth, nor the pride of illuftrious ancestry, to support me. But in the college of the priests at Memphis, I was early taught qualities by which to compenfate the

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want of thofe advantages; penetration to difcover the weakneffes, and pliancy to conciliate the affections of men. In that feminary, likewise, I acquired a power of eloquence to lead the paffions, a fubtlety of argument to confound the judgement. Endowed with fuch accomplish. ments, I obtained a feat in that council, which by the fuperiority of my talents I have fince been enabled to guide. Amidft the divifions with which that council has been agitated, amidst the factions with which our province has been torn, the art of Zoroes has drawn from those divifions and those factions, his power and his emoluments: He has wielded to his purposes the furi-ous zeal of the multitude, and the jarring intereftsof their leaders; and has rifen, by his command over the fluctuating opinions of mankind, to rank, to office, and to wealth."-The Governor looked fternly at him, and his face reddened with indig-nation: "I am not indeed," said he, "a ftranger to the name of Zoroes; I have heard of fuch a man, who lives on the mischiefs of faction, who foments divifions, that he may increase his own confequence, and creates parties, that he may guide them in the blindness of their course; who fows public contention, that he may reap private advantage; and thrives amidst the storms that wreck the peace of his country." He gave

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the fignal to the guards, who hurried Zoroes to his fate. His punishment was cruel, but fomewhat analogous to his character and his crimes. He was expofed in an ifland of the Nile, to the crocodiles that inhabit it.

After witnefling this difagreeable exercise of justice, it was with pleasure I beheld a beautiful female, dreffed with equal elegance and fplendour, tripping towards the throne, and feemingly pleased with the admiration of the furrounding multitude. In a fweet accent, though with a manner rather infantine, fhe informed the Governor, that fome months ago fhe had married a man of fourfcore, who had nothing to recommend him but his immense wealth, of which the previously ftipulated, that she should have the abfolute disposal. "You fee," faid fhe," the ufe I make of it. Thefe jewels are esteemed the finest in the province; and I hope foon to poffefs a fet ftill more precious." The Governor, without hearing more of her prattle, pronounced a fentence which I confefs I thought somewhat fevere. He ordered her to be stript of all her coftly ornaments, and to be fent home in a plain garment to the house of her husband, with inftructions, that, during the remainder of his days, she fhould be constrained to live constantly with him, and permitted to fee no other company whatever.

While I was commiferating the hard fate of this fair unfortunate, the crier pronounced my own name, in a deep and hollow tone of voice. This alarmed me fo much, that I awaked in no fmall confternation, and was very well pleafed to find myself quietly in my own bed in the Good Town of Edinburgh. Of all men living, a Lounger must ever be the most puzzled to give an account of his life, converfation, and mode of living; and, therefore, however wife the law of Amafis may be, I fairly own that I was happy to find I was not fubject to it.

M.

No 48. SATURDAY, Dec. 31. 1785.

Difcipulus eft prioris pofterior dies.

SEN.

THE

HE Lounger having now "rounded one revolving year," may confider himself as an acquaintance of fome standing with his readers, and, at this period of gratulations, may venture to pay them the compliments of the season with the freedom of intimacy and the cordiality of friendship. In the life of a periodical Effayist, a twelvemonth is a confiderable age. That part of the world in which his fubject lies, he has then had an opportunity of viewing in all its different fituations; he has feen it in the hurry of business, in the heyday of amusement, in the quiet of the country; and he now attends it in its course of Christmas feftivity and holiday merriment.

Yet I know not how it is, that admift the gratulations and feftivity of this returning feafon, I am fometimes difpofed to hear the one, and partake the other, with a certain seriousness of mind not well fuited to the vacancy of the time; to look

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