paths pursue;
    And while he thinks the fair illusion true,
    The trackless scenes disperse in fluid air,
    And woods and wilds, and thorny ways appear: 
    A tedious road the weary wretch returns,
    And, as he goes, the transient vision mourns.

From my own Apartment, May 6.

There has a mail this day arrived from Holland; but the matter of the advices importing rather what gives us great expectations, than any positive assurances, I shall, for this time, decline giving you what I know, and apply the following verses of Mr. Dryden, in the second part of “Almanzor,” to the present circumstances of things, without discovering what my knowledge in astronomy suggests to me.

When empire in its childhood first appears, A watchful fate o’er sees its tender years:  Till grown more strong, it thrusts and stretches out, And elbows all the kingdoms round about.  The place thus made for its first breathing free, It moves again for ease and luxury; Till swelling by degrees it has possest The greater space, and now crowds up the rest.  When from behind there starts some petty state, And pushes on its now unwieldy fate.  Then down the precipice of time it goes, And sinks in minutes, which in ages rose.[190]

[Footnote 180:  “I’ll teach you a way to outwit Mrs. Johnson; it is a new-fashioned way of being witty, and they call it a bite.  You must ask a bantering question, or tell some damned lie in a serious manner, then she will answer, or speak as if you were in earnest, and then cry you, ‘Madam, there’s a bite.’  I would not have you undervalue this, for it is the constant amusement in Court, and everywhere else among the great people; and I let you know it, in order to have it obtain among you, and to teach you a new refinement” (Swift’s “Journal").  See the Spectator, Nos. 47, 504:  “A Biter is one who tells you a thing you have no reason to disbelieve in itself; and perhaps has given you, before he bit you, no reason to disbelieve it for his saying it; and if you give him credit, laughs in your face, and triumphs that he has deceived you.  In a word, a Biter is one who thinks you a fool, because you do not think him a knave.”]

[Footnote 181:  Owen McSwiney, a manager of Drury Lane Theatre, and afterwards of the Haymarket Theatre.  After living in Italy for some years, he obtained a place in the Custom-house, and was keeper of the King’s Mews.  On his death in 1754 he left his fortune to Mrs. Woffington.]

[Footnote 182:  Christopher Rich, manager of Drury Lane Theatre, who died in 1714, was at this time involved in a quarrel with the principal actors about the profits of their benefits.]

[Footnote 183:  Cibber ("Apology,” chap. x.) complains that Rich paid extraordinary prices to singers, dancers, and other exotic performers, which were as constantly deducted out of the sinking salaries of his actors.  In December, 1709, the Lord Chamberlain ordered that no new representations were to be brought upon the stage which were not necessary to the better performance of comedy or opera, “such as ladder-dancing, antic postures,” &c., without his leave.—­(Lord Chamberlain’s Records, Warrant Book, No. 22.)]