MULC1BER SMITH. 517 



fore, but in due time he moralizes himself into a misanthrope. Unless 

 activity of the body be proportioned to activity of mind, poverty, by 

 a very harsh, but not less excellent law of nature, is commonly the 

 result ; and poverty, for this very reason, had been, was, and promised 

 still to be, the lot of Mulciber T/B. Smith. 



Accordingly, at the age of twenty-seven, and after much uphill and 

 very various work the expected something or other being as far dis- 

 tant now as on the first day of hoping he discovered the startling fact, 

 that after the payment of his just debts and funeral expenses (these, to 

 be sure, were not yet a real burthen upon his estate, but, as they would 

 be to be incurred in the end, they ought in strictness to be honourably 

 estimated now), he would not be possessed of any great pecuniary sur- 

 plus ; in short, he owed his tailor eight pounds and some indifferent shil- 

 lings, and was six weeks in arrear with his landlord for lodging-rent 

 to pay which sums he could find, after a rigid examination of his ex- 

 chequer, little better than two solitary sovereigns. This,, if not sur- 

 prising, was vexatious. 



It is undoubtedly true, that for some days past he had been aware of 

 the diminution of his finances, and of the growing increase of the de- 

 mand which would soon of necessity be made upon them ; he was sensi- 

 ble that they must be low, but he did not precisely know they were so 

 low. He had been engaged in hoping that something or other would 

 turn up immediately to avert the temporary cloud upon his destiny 

 Mulciber was an excellent hoper and, as the subject of such an 

 inquiry was not peculiarly tempting, he had continued to postpone it 

 de die in diem ; but when money is getting low, it is astonishing how 

 easily it becomes calculable. He tried anxiously to remember whether 

 any pecuniary debts were payable to him, but after a severe exercise of 

 his memory in this particular, he failed to recollect any individual who 

 owed him a shilling. His position was unpleasant, but what could he 

 do ? This was a question more easily asked than answered ; so he trusted 

 to fate, and had recourse to hoping with greater energy than ever. 

 Much of the painfulness of this predicament, however, had been soothed 

 by the contemplation of a novel crotchet, which accident had recently 

 evoked from the mysterious recesses of his cerebral organ. In a gossip 

 between two neighbours upon the subject of a scape-grace son, which 

 during an evening's ramble he partly overheard, something about " the 

 necessity of sticking to one thing in life," fell upon his ear ; he pondered 

 over the words, and deemed them good. Now, upon the virtue of this 

 hint, which it was evidently his destiny to receive, he had been rumi- 

 nating ever since, and trying hard to determine which of his talents he 

 should for the future permanently and exclusively cultivate ; but the 

 perplexing part of the affair was to hit upon the best. He possessed 

 he felt it abundance of notable resources, any one of which, with a 

 little fuither training, might be made available; it might be mechani- 

 cal, and therefore vulgar, but adverse circumstances fate made it 

 necessary : the difficulty was to select the one which should hold out 

 the fairest chances of ulterior success. The danger to be dreaded was 

 a mis-choice, and he felt himself in the awkwardness of a many- horned 

 dilemma. 



The longer he reflected the more indecisive he became, and day after 



