JUV., Sat. iii. 39.

* * * * *

_From my own Apartment, January 23._

I went on Saturday last to make a visit in the city; and as I passed
through Cheapside, I saw crowds of people turning down towards the Bank,
and struggling who should first get their money into the new-erected
lottery.[35] It gave me a great notion of the credit of our present
government and administration, to find people press as eagerly to pay
money, as they would to receive it; and at the same time a due respect
for that body of men who have found out so pleasing an expedient for
carrying on the common cause, that they have turned a tax into a
diversion. The cheerfulness of spirit, and the hopes of success, which
this project has occasioned in this great city, lightens the burden of
the war, and puts me in mind of some games which they say were invented
by wise men who were lovers of their country, to make their fellow
citizens undergo the tediousness and fatigues of a long siege. I think
there is a kind of homage due to fortune (if I may call it so), and that
I should be wanting to myself if I did not lay in my pretences to her
favour, and pay my compliments to her by recommending a ticket to her
disposal. For this reason, upon my return to my lodgings, I sold off a
couple of globes and a telescope,[36] which, with the cash I had by me,
raised the sum that was requisite for that purpose. I find by my
calculations, that it is but a hundred and fifty thousand to one against
my being worth a thousand pounds per annum for thirty-two years;[37] and
if any plum[38] in the City will lay me a hundred and fifty thousand
pounds to twenty shillings (which is an even bet), that I am not this
fortunate man, I will take the wager, and shall look upon him as a man
of singular courage and fair-dealing, having given orders to Mr. Morphew
to subscribe such a policy in my behalf, if any person accepts of the
offer. I must confess, I have had such private intimations from the
twinkling of a certain star in some of my astronomical observations,
that I should be unwilling to take fifty pounds a year for my chance,
unless it were to oblige a particular friend. My chief business at
present is, to prepare my mind for this change of fortune: for as
Seneca, who was a great moralist, and a much richer man than I shall be
with this addition to my present income, says, "_Munera ista Fortunae
putatis? Insidiae