habitation, where leaving me, he fled, as I suppose, to execute his ill-fated purpose. After undergoing the press for some hours, on my return, (a custom we were all subject to, the frequency of which I may say was the chief cause of my early decay) I indulged myself in reflecting on the days adventure, which led me naturally to contemplate on the many young people who quit a life of industry and competence, and pursue the phantom of hope, through the various mazes of misery she wantonly leads them; stimulated at first perhaps by choice, but at length are forced to persevere through necessity, and how oft does she lead these unhappy men to total destruction; seating herself in the mid ocean and beckoning to her followers, who seldom have the power to see the distance she is from the shore, or perceive the whirlpools that intervene, but keeping their eye fixed upon her, plunge in and are lost! But, continued the sage, I fear I am rather troublesome, than entertaining to you. I beg returned the gay spark, you will make no apology, for I am very far from thinking your observations will be the least entertaining part of your narration—Sable replied, young gentleman, I believe you speak ingenuously, and am pleased I have an opportunity, before I leave this miserable state, of communicating any thing that may hereafter be of service to one who appears so deserving of it.—White politely thanked him for the compliment, and Sable thus proceeded in the relation of his adventures. It was not long ere I was again summoned to the duties of my station, by a tall _genteelish_ kind of a person, who ordered me to be tryed upon him, and I was engaged by him for the day. Notwithstanding I thought myself a tolerable good physiognomist, yet the appearance and deportment of this stranger caused my fancy (that weathercock of judgment) to vary so often, that it was impossible for me to fix any criterion: he had much the air of a gentleman, but his gentility seemed a kind of a habit, that he had acquired since he came to years of maturity, and appeared to be only superficial, from the effect of close observation, rather than the air and grace which naturally results from the manners being property cultivated and corrected in youth.—In short he was altogether a contradiction, and intirely conquered my sagacity, which greatly added to the natural desire I had of proving the adventure.