"
Cadwallader understood this insinuation, and was tempted to amuse
him in such a manner as would tend to his disgrace and confusion;
but, considering that the case was of too criminal a nature to be
tampered with, he withstood his desire of punishing this rapacious
cormorant any other way than by telling him he would not impart the
secret for his whole for-tune ten times doubled; so that the usurer
retired, very much dissatisfied with the issue of his consultation.
The next person who presented himself at this altar of intelligence,
was an author, who recommended himself to a gratis advice, by
observing, that a prophet and poet were known by the same appellation
among the ancients; and that, at this day, both the one and the other
spoke by inspiration. The conjurer refused to own this affinity,
which, he said, formerly subsisted, because both species of the
vates were the children of fiction; but as he himself did not fall
under that predicament, he begged leave to disown all connection
with the family of the poets; and the poor author would have been
dismissed without his errand, though he offered to leave an ode as
security for the magician's fee, to be paid from the profits of his
first third night, had not Cadwallader's curiosity prompted him to
know the subject of this gentleman's inquiry.
Pages:
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110