The Pilot of the Ship I embarked in, who industriously ran
upon every Rock, has at last split the Vessel, and so much of a sudden,
that the whole Crew, I mean his Domesticks, are all left to swim for
their Lives, without one friendly Plank to assist them to Shore. In
short, he left me sick, in Debt, and without a Penny; but as I begin to
recover, and have a little time to Think, I can't help considering
myself, as one whisk'd up behind a Witch upon a Broomstick, and hurried
over Mountains and Dales through confus'd Woods and thorny Thickets, and
when the Charm is ended, and the poor Wretch dropp'd in a Desart, he can
give no other Account of his enchanted Travels, but that he is much
fatigued in Body and Mind, his Cloaths torn, and worse in all other
Circumstances, without being of the least Service to himself or any
body else. But I will follow your Advice with an active Resolution, to
retrieve my bad Fortune, and almost a Year miserably misspent.
'But notwithstanding what I have suffered, and what my Brother Mad-man
has done to undo himself, and every body who was so unlucky to have the
least Concern with him, I could not but be movingly touch'd at so
extraordinary a Vicissitude of Fortune, to see a great Man fallen from
that shining Light, in which I beheld him in the House of Lords, to such
a Degree of Obscurity, that I have observ'd the meanest Commoner here
decline, and the Few he would sometimes fasten on, to be tired of his
Company; for you know he is but a bad Orator in his Cups, and of late he
has been but seldom sober.
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