The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

Chapter CI

532 The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle he mistook for equanimity that which was no other than intoxication; and two whole days elapsed, before he arrived at a due sense of his misfortune. Then indeed he underwent a woeful self-examination; every circumstance of the inquiry added fresh pangs to his reflection; and the result of the whole was a discovery, that his fortune was totally consumed, and himself reduced to a state of the most deplorable dependance. This suggestion alone might (in the anguish of his despondency) have driven him to some desperate course, had not it been in some measure qualified by the confidence of his lawyers, and the assurance of the minister, which (slender as the world hath generally found them) were the only bulwarks between misery and him. The mind is naturally pliable, and, provided it has the least hope to lean upon, adapts itself wonderfully to the emergencies of fortune, especially when the imagination is gay and luxuriant. This was the case with our adventurer; instead of indulging the melancholy ideas which his loss inspired, he had recourse to the flattering delusions of hope, soothing himself with unsubstantial plans of future greatness, and endeavouring to cover what was past with the veil of oblivion. After some hesitation, he resolved to make Crabtree acquainted with his misfortune, that once for all he might pass the ordeal of his satire, without subjecting himself to a long series of sarcastic hints and doubtful allusions, which he could not endure. He accordingly took the first opportunity of telling him, that he was absolutely ruined by the perfidy of his patron, and desired that he would not aggravate his affliction, by those cynical remarks which were peculiar to men of his misanthropical disposition. Cadwallader listened to this declaration with internal surprize, which, however, produced no alteration in his countenance; and, after some pause, observed, that our hero had no reason to look for any new observation from him upon this event, which he had long foreseen, and daily expected; and exhorted him, with an ironical sneer, to console himself with the promise of the minister, who would doubtless discharge the debts of his deceased bosom-friend. chapter ci. Peregrine commits himself to the publick, and is admitted member of a college of authors. The bitterness of this explanation being passed, our young gentleman began to revolve within himself schemes for making up the deficiencies of his yearly income , which was now so grievously reduced, and determined to profit, in some shape or other, by those talents which he owed to nature and education. He had, in his af- fluence, heard of several authors, who, without any pretensions to genius, or human literature, earned a very genteel subsistence, by undertaking work for booksellers, in which reputation was not at all concerned. One (for example) professed all manner of Volume Four, Chapter CI 533 translation, at so much per sheet, and actually kept five or six amanuenses continually employed, like so many clerks in a compting-house;1 by which means, he was enabled to live at his ease, and enjoy his friend and his bottle, ambitious of no other character than that of an honest man, and a good neighbour. Another projected a variety of plans for new dictionaries, which were executed under his eye by day-labourers; and the province of a third was history and voyages, collected or abridged by understrappers of the same class.2 Mr. Pickle, in his comparisons, paid such deference to his own capacity, as banished all doubts of his being able to excel any of those undertakers, in their different branches of profession, if ever he should be driven to that experiment: but his ambition prompted him to make his interest and glory coincide, by attempting some performance which should do him honour with the publick, and at the same time establish his importance among the copy-purchasers in town. With this view, he worshipped the muse; and, conscious of the little regard which is, in this age, paid to every species of poetic composition, in which neither satire nor obscenity occurs, he produced an imitation of Juvenal, and lashed some conspicuous characters, with equal truth, spirit, and severity. Though his name did not appear in the title-page of this production, he managed matters so, as that the work was universally imputed to the true author, who was not altogether disappointed in his expectations of success; for...