I went back into it. But on getting out of it, in the inn yard at Salisbury, I heard some money jingle, and on searching my pockets, I discovered that I had lost about sixteen shillings, two or three of which I found in the basket, the rest had fallen through on the road; and no doubt the whole of what I had left of my ten pounds would have gone the same way, had I not (for fear of highwaymen) sewed it up in my clothes. I recollected that Seneca had said, "A wise and good man is proof against all accidents of fate; and that a brave man is a match for fortune;" and knowing myself to be both wise, good, and brave, I bore the loss of my silver with the temper of a Stoic; and, like Epictetus, reasoned, that I could not have lost it if I had not first had it; and that as I had lost it, why it was all the same as though it had never been in my possession.

But a more dreadful misfortune befell me the next morning; the extreme severe weather still continuing, in order to keep me from dying with cold, I drank some purl and gin, which (not being used to drink anything strong) made me so drunk, that the coachman put me inside the carriage for fear I should fall off the roof. I there met with some of the jovial sort, who had also drunk to keep out the cold, so that I found them in high glee: being asked to sing them a song, I immediately complied, and, forgetting that I was one of the holy brethren, I sung song for song with the merriest of them; only several times between the acts, I turned up the whites of my eyes, and uttered a few ejaculations, as "Lord forgive me!" "Oh Christ! what am I doing?" and a few more of the same pious sort.

"The veriest hermit in the nation,

May yield, God knows, to strong temptation." SWIFT.

However, after eating a good dinner, and refraining from liquor, I became nearly sober, and by the time I

arrived in town, quite so; though in a terrible agitation of mind, by reflecting on what I had done; and was so ashamed of the affair, that I concealed it from my wife, that I might not grieve her righteous soul with the knowledge of so dreadful a fall: so that she with great pleasure ripped open the places in my clothes, which contained my treasure, and with a heart full of gratitude, piously thanked Providence for affording us such a supply, and hoped that the Lord would enable us to make a good use of it.

"Whate'er can good or ill befall,
Faithful partner she of all."

WESLEY'S Melissa.

Here perhaps I may with great propriety quote the following lines of Gray:

"Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure;
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile.
The short and simple annals of the poor."

I am, dear friend, yours

LETTER XX.

"Thus dwelt poor

of few goods possest,

A bed, board, tankard, and six cups at best:
Item, Wesley's head, old books, and rotten chest ;
His bed was scant, for his short wife too short;
His cups were earthen, all of smaller sort."

"Fixt in an elbow chair at ease,
I choose companions as I please."

OWEN'S Juvenal.

SWIFT.

"Hail, precious pages! that amuse and teach,
Exalt the genius, and improve the breast.
A feast for ages. Oh thou banquet nice
Where the soul riots with secure excess.

What heartfelt bliss! What pleasure-winged hours !”
DR S. DAVIS.

DEAR FRIEND,

WITH the remainder of the money we purchased household goods; but as we then had not sufficient to furnish a room, we worked hard, and lived still harder, so that in a short time we had a room furnished with our own goods; and I believe that it is not possible for you to imagine with what pleasure and satisfaction we looked round the room and surveyed our property: I believe that Alexander the Great never reflected on his immense acquisitions with half the heartfelt enjoyment which we experienced on this capital attainment.

"How happy is the man whose early lot,
Hath made him master of a furnish'd cot!"

After our room was furnished, as we still enjoyed a better state of health than we did at Bristol and

Taunton, and had also more work and higher wages, we often added something or other to our stock of wearing apparel.

"Industrious habits in each bosom reign,

And industry begets a love of gain,

Hence all the good from opulence that springs."

GOLDSMITH.

Nor did I forget the old book-shops: but fre quently added an old book to my small collection; and I really have often purchased books with the money that should have been expended in purchasing something to eat; a striking instance of which follows:

At the time we were purchasing household goods we kept ourselves very short of money, and on Christmas eve we had but half-a-crown left to buy a Christmas dinner. My wife desired that I would go to market and purchase this festival dinner, and off I set for that purpose; but in the way I saw an old book-shop, and I could not resist the temptation of going in; intending only to expend sixpence or ninepence out of my half-a-crown. But I stumbled upon Young's Night Thoughts-forgot my dinner-down went my half-crown-and I hastened home, vastly delighted with the acquisition. When my wife asked me where was our Christmas dinner, I told her it was in my pocket." In your pocket (said she); that is a strange place! How could you think of stuffing a joint of meat into your pocket?" I assured her that it would take no harm. But as I was in no haste to take it out, she began to be inore particular, and enquired what I had got, &c. On which I began to harangue on the superiority of intellectual pleasures over sensual gratifications, and observed that the brute creation enjoyed the latter in a much higher degree than man. And that a man, that was not possessed of intellectual enjoyments, was but a twolegged brute.

I was proceeding in this strain: "And so, (said

she,) instead of buying a dinner, I suppose you have, as you have done before, being buying books with the money?"

"Pray what is the value of Newton or Locke?

Do they lessen the price of potatoes or corn? When poverty comes, can they soften the shock, Or teach us how hunger is patiently borne? You spend half your life-time in poring on books; What a mountain of wit must be cramm'd in that skull And yet, if a man were to judge by your looks, Perhaps he would think you confoundedly dull."

I confessed I had bought Young's Night Thoughts "And I think (said I) that I have acted wisely; for had I bought a dinner we should have eaten it to morrow, and the pleasure would have been soon over. but should we live fifty years longer, we shall have the Night Thoughts to feast upon.' This was too powerful an argument to admit of any farther debate; in short, my wife was convinced. Down I sat, and began to read with as much enthusiasm as the good doctor possessed when he wrote it; and so much did it excite my attention as well as approbation, that I retained the greatest part of it in my memory. A couplet of Persius, as Englished, might have been applied to me:

"For this you gain your meagre looks,

And sacrifice your dinner to your books."

Sometime in June 1774, as we sat at work in our room, Mr Boyd, one of Mr Wesley's people, called and informed me that a little shop and parlour were to be let in Featherstone street, adding, that if I was to take it, I might there get some work as a master. I without hesitation told him that I liked the idea, and hinted that I would sell books also. Mr Boyd then asked me how I came to think of selling books? I informed him that until that moment it had never once entered into my thoughts; but that when he proposed my taking the shop it instantaneously oc