approaching loss,—and then-but the dejection of my spirits will not suffer me to make any other remarks on so melancholy a subject, than that compleat sets of the MICROCOSM, or any single Number, may be had as usual of

DEBILITATED as I am with sickness, I feel that I

shall not be able to entertain my readers, as usual, with a calm discussion of topics not the most immediately interesting. I feel plainly that I am no longer a Man of this World. And that being the case, I think it incumbent on me to leave my fellow-citizens some knowledge of the Life of one, whose writings have been dedicated to their service.

A life indeed of so short duration, as that of GREGORY GRIFFIN, cannot be supposed to have been replete with any uncommon incidents; or to have abounded with any surprising adventures. It has, as may be imagined, been checquered rather by a variety of sentiments, than situations; and owes its diversification rather to a succession of ideas, than a series of events.

Yet even in these, I flatter myself, that my fellow-citizens will find themselves interested; and that they will be solicitous to become acquainted even with the most trivial circumstances, which concern one, to whom they are indebted, if not for instruction and entertainment, at least for an earnest desire to instruct and entertain.

Of my birth and parentage I shall say nothing; for, from an account of either, no instruction could be gathered, Of my education-the first circumstances, which I have any recollection of, are, that I was, at the age of six years, employed in learning the rudiments of my mother tongue, spinning cock-chafers on corking pins, and longing for bread and butter, at a day school, near. My proficiency here was so great, that I actually got through, within a month, by far the greater part a gingerbread alphabet, and might be literally said to devour my learning with an astonishing avidity. In my hours of relaxation from study, the utmost stretch of my intellects was the acquisition of the aforesaid bread and butter; the highest notion I could conceive of rational amusement, was enjoyment of that delight, which arose from the comtemplation of the abovementioned cock-chafer, writhing, or, as I then, in compliance with the custom of my school fellows, termed it, preaching, in the agonies of impalement. And yet, my temper, gentle reader, is not cruel; my disposition, would you believe me, is far from tyrannical. But the abuse of power is equally prevalent among children and men. And when we every day find, by melancholy experience, that the strongest intellects, and the maturest judgments are unable to resist the intoxication of uncontrouled command, and rioting in the plenitude of power, break through the laws of reason and of right, can we expect that the sense,

of childhood should be less frequently fascinated, and less easily overcome; and that, when armed with the ability of distributing life and death to the subject tribes of animals and insects, it should exercise its dominion with equity, and administer its charge without injustice? Not but, with regard to myself as well as others, the rage of despotism has been checked, and the triumphs of tyranny interrupted, by the admonitions of friendly advice and the interposition of parental authority. But, alas, how could I regard those admonitions, or revere that authority--when, after being severely chidden for wantonly dismembering a wasp, or knocking down a butterfly, I was often called upon to crush a spider, or trample an earwig to atoms, because forsooth, a lady in company had conceived a rooted horror for the one, or was endowed with a natural antipathy to the other? Let the parent, who would keep his child pure from the stain of cruelty to animals, beware, how he makes him the executioner of his vengeance on even the most noxious; the crusher of spiders, and the trampler of earwigs. The distinctions of harmless and hurtful, are not to be explained to childhood. Self preservation needs not the admonition.-The child who executes these commands, must, either if he does not reflect at all, be steeled by their repetition against the pleadings of pity or if he does reflect, in what light can he consider them, but as dictated by the lust of destroying, cloaked indeed under the affectation of antipathy!

as it

But to proceed in my narrative. My removal at the age of eight years to a Grammar School, at changed my method of study, and enlarged my prospects of improvement in the belles letters, so did it give a totally new turn to the train of my ideas, and open a larger field

for the exercise of my adventurous ambition. I set out with becoming a professed admirer, and would-be imitator, of the heroes of the head-class; and wearied the goodnatured patience of all my friends, relations, intimates, acquaintance, and visitors, during the first six vacations, by relating ten times a day, with a considerable degree of archness, and an infinite quantity of admiration, the tricks of Tomlinson, and the wickedness of Wilkins; and" how Spriggins kicked the Usher's shins under the table, and then said it was'n't he." I called moreover into action

my mimetic powers, and before the expiration of my. eleventh year, was able to imitate, with no small share of success, the tone and manner of the writing usher, in pronouncing Very vell, Master Simkins, I'll sartinly get you vipt for dartying on your breeches."-But the time was now arrived, when I was to be no longer the trumpeter of another's fame, the humble admirer of another's atchievements. Having attained the " topmost round" of that learning which this seminary was capable of bestowing, and going on, as I was, in my tweifth year, I thought it time to aim at being the pattern of the excellence I had pictured; and to become myself the hero of my own celebration. Like the son of Fingal, I now resolved to sing the atchievements of myself and my own companions.

quæque ipse miserrima vidi, “Et quorum pars magna fuit,”

And if in the ardor of narration, I by chance, had drained the sources of reality, and emptied the stores of truth, I betook myself, without hesitation, to ransacking the riches of fiction; and trusted implicity to the inexhaustible fertility of my own invention. Many a time have

I entertained, or perhaps tired, an indulgent audience, with long accounts of my miraculous escapes from dangers of my own raising; and extricated myself, with admirable address, from situations of my own contriving. Often have I, for the sake of displaying my heroism, and telling a good story, endangered my precious neck, by leaping fancied ditches, and climbing imaginary walls, for the purpose of despoiling fictitious apple-trees, or non-existent gooseberry-trees.

Luckily for my safety, and perhaps for my reputation, I was rescued from the midst of these "imminent deadly" dangers by a removal to Eton. From her to have" sucked the milk of science," to have contracted for her a pious fondness and veneration, which will bind me for ever to her interests; and perhaps, (pardon kind reader, the licenced vanity of a periodical writer abandoning himself on his death-bed to the fascination of egotism) to have improved by my earnest endeavours her younger part of the present generation, is to me a source of infinite pride and satisfaction.

But I find myself growing weak, and am unable to proceed any farther. With the rest of my life, and how it has been employed, my fellow-citizens are sufficiently acquainted. For my own part, I look back upon it with contentment;-but I must resign my pen to my publisher who will say whatever I have unsaid-that ought to be made known to my countrymen.-They will, I flatter myself, remember, not without esteem, the name of GREGORY GRIFFIN,-they will preserve a regard for his memory.