Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 17.djvu/159

Rh such long scores, and not going to market with ready money, forces us to take bad ware of the tradesmen at their own price. You have not posted your books these ten years; how is it possible for a man of business to keep his affairs even in the world at this rate? Pray God this Hocus be honest: would to God you would look over his bills, and see how matters stand between Frog and you : prodigious sums are spent in this lawsuit, and more must be borrowed of scriveners and usurers at heavy interest. Besides, my dear, let me beg of you to lay aside that wild project of leaving your business to turn lawyer, for which, let me tell you, nature never designed you. Believe me, these rogues do but flatter, that they may pick your pocket; observe what a parcel of hungry ragged fellows live by your cause; to be sure they will never make an end on't; I foresee this haunt you have got about the courts, will one day or other bring your family to beggary. Consider, my dear, how indecent it is to abandon your shop, and follow pettifoggers; the habit is so strong upon you, that there is hardly a plea between two country esquires about a barren acre upon a common, but you draw yourself in as bail, surety, or solicitor ." John heard her all this while with patience, till she pricked his maggot, and touched him in the tender point; then he broke out into a violent passion, "What, I not fit for a lawyer! Let me tell you, my clodpated relations spoiled the greatest genius in the world, when they bred me a mechanick. Lord Strutt, and his old rogue of a grandsire, have found to their cost, that " I can