-
Articles/Ads
Article CURIOUS ACCOUNT OF A DUMB PHILOSOPHER. ← Page 7 of 7
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Account Of A Dumb Philosopher.
little band of music , are all within the compass of nry small family . I delight to see my servants . as happy and as pleased as myself ; and setting aside their respective offices , for which their wages are their least rewards , they are much more my companions than my slaves ; and they receive my orders as favours rather than duties . What others , who perhaps have far less means than I have to support it , expend in gilt coachescostly liveriessuperb gardens and palaces ,
, , rich furniture and apparel , gaming , feasts , balls , masquerades , and the like , I employ in making other people easy in their circumstances ; in relieving the fatherless and the widow ; in administering to the sick ; in putting the sons of decayed families out to trades , and in giving small . fortunes to their daughters in marriage ; in procuring employments for some , and in setting up others in the trades
they have learned : and as I never appear in any of these things myself , and the number of my agents is not great , I am known to few . However , the enquiries I cause to be made , to find out these real objects of charity , give me an opportunity of knowing where I am not known , of seeing where I am not seen , and , in short , of prying into the actions , conduct , and misconduct of ever } ' ' rank of men , in this great city and the neighbourhood thereof ; from the highest degree to the , lowest . I find means to get an insight-into the most secret transactions ofthe Senate and the Consistory , in-the
assemblies ofthe great , and the diversions of the meaner sort ; hf taverns and coffee-houses , in studies and warehouses , in nurseries , and even among the gossips in the chambers of lying-in women . In short , there is no door , but what my silver key will open , whenever I think fit to put it into the hands of any of my agents . Nor is this mire matter of curiosity , but directly conducive to my main purpose , and the ultimate view of all my actionsthe happiness of fellow
citi-, my zens . By this means I can , without being perceived or suspected , make observations on the depraved manners ,, evil customs and vices ofthe times , and likewise distinguish the virtues and good qualities of those , who are so happy as not to be tainted / with them , and dare be upright , generous and virtuous , in' spite of that grand incitive to evil , fashion , and the example of others ; and as it is a part of my
employment to commit all these ' my remarks to writing , and to animadvert upon them , sometimes in a ludicrous , and at other times in a serious manner , I find means to render these my lucubrations useful to mankind , by getting them inserted , without any view of farther advantage , and even at my own expence , in the public prints : of which , as occasion shall offer , I shall submit some to your censure . '
Here my learned friend finished his history , and I was so hi ghly delighted with this , and what I had before seen and heard , that I could hardly forbear bursting out in an ecstasy , in the following hues , which I have somewhere read : < Should the whole frame of Nature round him break , In ruin and confusion bin I'd , Jle , unconcern'd , would hear the mi ghty crack , And stand secure amidst a falling world P [ TO BE CONTINUED , " ]
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Account Of A Dumb Philosopher.
little band of music , are all within the compass of nry small family . I delight to see my servants . as happy and as pleased as myself ; and setting aside their respective offices , for which their wages are their least rewards , they are much more my companions than my slaves ; and they receive my orders as favours rather than duties . What others , who perhaps have far less means than I have to support it , expend in gilt coachescostly liveriessuperb gardens and palaces ,
, , rich furniture and apparel , gaming , feasts , balls , masquerades , and the like , I employ in making other people easy in their circumstances ; in relieving the fatherless and the widow ; in administering to the sick ; in putting the sons of decayed families out to trades , and in giving small . fortunes to their daughters in marriage ; in procuring employments for some , and in setting up others in the trades
they have learned : and as I never appear in any of these things myself , and the number of my agents is not great , I am known to few . However , the enquiries I cause to be made , to find out these real objects of charity , give me an opportunity of knowing where I am not known , of seeing where I am not seen , and , in short , of prying into the actions , conduct , and misconduct of ever } ' ' rank of men , in this great city and the neighbourhood thereof ; from the highest degree to the , lowest . I find means to get an insight-into the most secret transactions ofthe Senate and the Consistory , in-the
assemblies ofthe great , and the diversions of the meaner sort ; hf taverns and coffee-houses , in studies and warehouses , in nurseries , and even among the gossips in the chambers of lying-in women . In short , there is no door , but what my silver key will open , whenever I think fit to put it into the hands of any of my agents . Nor is this mire matter of curiosity , but directly conducive to my main purpose , and the ultimate view of all my actionsthe happiness of fellow
citi-, my zens . By this means I can , without being perceived or suspected , make observations on the depraved manners ,, evil customs and vices ofthe times , and likewise distinguish the virtues and good qualities of those , who are so happy as not to be tainted / with them , and dare be upright , generous and virtuous , in' spite of that grand incitive to evil , fashion , and the example of others ; and as it is a part of my
employment to commit all these ' my remarks to writing , and to animadvert upon them , sometimes in a ludicrous , and at other times in a serious manner , I find means to render these my lucubrations useful to mankind , by getting them inserted , without any view of farther advantage , and even at my own expence , in the public prints : of which , as occasion shall offer , I shall submit some to your censure . '
Here my learned friend finished his history , and I was so hi ghly delighted with this , and what I had before seen and heard , that I could hardly forbear bursting out in an ecstasy , in the following hues , which I have somewhere read : < Should the whole frame of Nature round him break , In ruin and confusion bin I'd , Jle , unconcern'd , would hear the mi ghty crack , And stand secure amidst a falling world P [ TO BE CONTINUED , " ]