"_Pulchrum est accusari ah
accusandis_," said my friend, the bookseller, "who has suffered more by
the fashionable world than yourself? Have you not dissipated a splendid
patrimony in a series of the most liberal entertainments? Has not your
generous board been graced with the presence of royalty? and the banquet
enriched by the attendant stars of nobility, from the duke to the right
honorable knight commander. And have you not since felt the most cruel
neglect from these your early associates, and much obliged friends, with
no crime but poverty, with no reproach but the want of prudence? Have
you not experienced ingratitude and persecution in every shape that
human baseness could find ingenuity to inflict? And can you hesitate to
avail yourself of the noble revenge in your power, when it combines the
advantages of being morally profitable both to yourself and society?
'------------Velat materna tempora myrto.'
Virg.
'When Vice the shelter of a mask disdain'd,
When Folly triumph'd, and a Nero reign'd,
Petronius rose satiric, yet polite,
And show'd the glaring monster full in sight;
To public mirth exposed the imperial beast,
And made his wanton court the common jest.'"
With this quotation, delivered with good emphasis, little Index bade
me good morning, and left me impressed with no mean opinion of his
friendship,
~12~~
and with an increased admiration of his knowledge of the world.
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