Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/223

 *tered, and all shunned her. If a lover gave a ball to his mistress and her friends, it was stipulated, that Floretta should not be invited. If she entered a publick room, the ladies curtsied, and shrunk away, for there was no such thing as speaking, but Floretta would find something to criticise. If a girl was more sprightly than her aunt, she was threatened, that in a little time she would be like Floretta. Visits were very diligently paid, when Floretta was known not to be at home; and no mother trusted her daughter to herself, without a caution, if she should meet Floretta, to leave the company as soon as she could.

With all this Floretta made sport at first, but in time grew weary of general hostility. She would have been content with a few friends, but no friendship was durable; it was the fashion to desert her, and with the fashion what fidelity will contend? She could have easily amused herself in solitude, but that she thought it mean to quit the field to treachery and folly.

Persecution at length tired her constancy, and she implored Lilinet to rid her of her wit: Lilinet complied, and walked up the mountain, but was often forced to stop, and wait for her follower. When they came to the flinty fountain, Floretta filled a small cup, and slowly brought it to her lips, but the water was insupportably bitter. She just tasted it, and dashed it to the ground, diluted the bitterness at the fountain of alabaster, and resolved to keep her wit, with all its consequences.

Being now a wit for life, she surveyed the various conditions of mankind with such superiority of sentiment, that she found few distinctions to be envied or desired, and, therefore, did not very soon make another visit to the fountain. At length, being alarmed by sickness, she resolved to drink length of life from the golden cup. She returned, elated and secure, for though the longevity acquired was indeterminate, she considered death as far distant, and, therefore, suffered it not to intrude upon her pleasures.

But length of life included not perpetual health. She