MAJOR SEMPLE LISLE. 36^ 



hunted into villainy, by the clamours of hypo- 

 crify, the die is caft, and his perdition is inevi- 

 table. 



Too often do talents and accomplilhments 

 prove the ruin of the owner ; he is befct by the 

 jenvy of little minds, they endeavour to reduce 

 him to their own level, by drawing him into de- 

 bauches ; they flatter him while in his prefence, 

 but no fooner is he gone than they revile him : 

 if his intimacy with them can give probability 

 to their tales, they fabricate calumnies which 

 pafs for truths ; if he makes one falfe flep, he 

 falls unpitied, and they are the firft to trample 

 upon him. 



It is a trite obfervation, that men of talent 

 are generally poor, and feldom rife to any high 

 preferment ; it is true ! for if they depend folely 

 on their merit, no fooner does that begin to 

 difplay itfelf, than it is invefted on all fides by 

 an army of blockheads, who, having no merit 

 pf their own, cannot bear it in others. But 

 •where a youth fets out with high fpirits, con- 

 fpicucus talents, indulgent friends, and a fmali 

 fortune, his ruin is next to inevitable; *life is 

 to him a perpetual ambufcade, with a thoufand 

 malked batteries ready to play upon him at 

 every turn ; his vanity is flattered, his fenfes 

 ^.mufed, his companions prefs him to become 



B b the 



