erfections, he has wondered how he had been able to spend so great
a part of his life without so important an utensil. I won't pretend
to furnish out an inventory of all the valuable commodities that
are to be found at his shop.

"I shall content myself with giving an account of what I think most
curious. Imprimis, his pocket-books are very neat, and well
contrived, not for keeping bank bills or goldsmiths' notes,[142] I
confess; but they are admirable for registering the lodgings of
Madonnas, and for preserving letters from ladies of quality: his
whips and spurs are so nice, that they'll make one that buys them
ride a fox-hunting, though before he hated noise and early rising,
and was afraid of breaking his neck. His seals are curiously
fancied, and exquisitely well cut, and of great use to encourage
young gentlemen to write a good hand. Ned Puzzlepost had been
ill-used by his writing-master, and writ a sort of a Chinese, or
downright scrawlian: however, upon his buying a seal of my friend,
he is so much improved by continual writing, that it is believed in
a short time one may be able to read his letters, and find out his
meaning, without guessing. His pistols and fusees are so very good,
that they are fit to be laid up among the finest china. Then his
tweezer-cases are incomparable: you shall have one not much bigger
than your finger, with seventeen several instruments in it, all
necessary every hour of the day, during the whole course of a man's
life. But if this virtuoso excels in one thing more than another,
it is in canes; he has spent his most select hours in the knowledge
of them, and is arrived at that perfection, that he is able to hold
forth upon canes longer than upon any one subject in the world.
Indeed his canes are so finely clouded, and so well made up, either
with gold or amber heads, that I am of the opinion it is impossible
for a gentleman to walk, talk, sit or stand as he should do,
without one of them. He knows the value of a cane, by knowing the
value of the buyer's estate. Sir Timothy Shallow has two thousand
pounds per annum, and Tom Empty one. They both at several times
bought a cane of Charles: Sir Timothy's cost ten guineas, and Tom
Empty's five. Upon comparing them, they were perfectly alike. Sir
Timothy surprised there