102 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



in that city, fourteen or fifteen thoufand. And 

 it is reafonable to fuppofc, that among thefe laft, 

 there muft be a very confiderable proportion the 

 progeny of indigent families. The others are partly, 

 it muft be admitted, the fruit of libertinifm ; but 

 irregularity in morals proves equally the mifery 

 of the people, and even more powerfully, as it 

 conftrains them at once to renounce virtue, and 

 to flifle the very firft feelings of Nature. 



The fpirit of finance has accumulated all thefe 

 woes on the head of the People, by ftripping them, 

 of moll of the means of fubfiilence ; but, what is 

 infinitely more to be regretted, it has fapped the 

 foundations of their morality. It no longer efteems 

 or commends any but thofe who are making a for- 

 tune. If any refpecl be ftill paid by it, to talents 

 and virtue, this is the only reafon, it confiders 

 thefe as one of the roads to wealth. Nay, what, 

 in the phrafe of the world, is called good company, 

 has hardly any other way of thinking. But I 

 fhould be glad to know, whether there be any ho- 

 nourable method of making a fortune, for a man 

 who has not already got money, in a country 

 where every thing is put up to fale. A man muft, 

 at Icaft, intrigue, unite himfelf to a party and flat- 

 ter it, fecure puffers and protedlors ; and for this 

 purpofe he muft be diflioneft, corrupt, adulate, 

 deceive, adopt another man's pafTions, good or 



bad. 



