For my part, I should exult at the
privilege of banishment, and think myself happy in any region that
should restore me once again to honesty and peace.
I am, Sir, &c.
MISELLA.
No. 172. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1751.
_Saepe rogare soles, qualis sim, Prisce, futurus,
Si fiam locuples, simque repente potens.
Quemquam posse putas mores narrare futuros?
Die mihi, si fias tu leo, qualis eris?_ MART. Lib. xii. Ep. 93.
Priscus, you've often ask'd me how I'd live,
Should fate at once both wealth and honour give.
What soul his future conduct can foresee?
Tell me what sort of lion you would be. F. LEWIS.
Nothing has been longer observed, than that a change of fortune causes a
change of manners; and that it is difficult to conjecture from the
conduct of him whom we see in a low condition, how he would act, if
wealth and power were put into his hands. But it is generally agreed,
that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation; and that the
powers of the mind, when they are unbound and expanded by the sunshine
of felicity, more frequently luxuriate into follies, than blossom into
goodness.
Many observations have concurred to establish this opinion, and it is
not likely soon to become obsolete, for want of new occasions to revive
it.
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