Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/162

152 muſt elapſe before any profit could be expected, ſhe managed with the utmoſt frugality. The Dr. mean time acted the part of a tutor to miſs, in Arithmetic, Latin, and Mathematics, to which ſhe diſcovered the ſtrongeſt propenſity. All things being properly diſpoſed for the grand operation, the vitriol furnace was ſet to work, which requiring the moſt intenſe heat for ſeveral days, unhappily ſet fire to the houſe; the ſtairs were conſumed in an inſtant, and as it ſurprized them all in their firſt ſleep, it was a happy circumſtance that no life periſhed. This unlucky accident was 300 l. loſs to Mrs. Thomas: yet ſtill the grand project was in a fair way of ſucceeding in the other wing of the building. But one misfortune is often followed by another. The next Sunday evening, while ſhe was reading to, and inſtructing her little family, a ſudden, and a violent report, like a diſcharge of cannon was heard; the houſe being timber, rocked like a cradle, and the family were all thrown from their chairs on the ground. They looked with the greateſt amazement on each other, not gueſſing the cauſe, when the operator pretending to revive, fell to ſtamping, tearing his hair, and raving like a madman, crying out undone, undone, loſt and undone for ever. He ran directly to the Athanor, when unlocking the door, he found the machine ſplit quite in two, the eggs broke, and that precious amalgamum which they contained was ſcattered like ſand among the aſhes. Mrs. Thomas’s eyes were now ſufficiently opened to diſcern the impoſture, and, with a very ſerene countenance, told the empyric, that accidents will happen, but means might be fallen upon to repair this fatal diſappointment. The Dr. obſerving her ſo ſerene, imagined ſhe would grant him more money to compleat his ſcheme, but ſhe ſoon diſappointed his expectation, by ordering him to be gone, and made him a preſent of five guineas, leſt