ualify
me for any delicacy in other enjoyments; so that in the midst of plenty
I loathed everything. Taste for elegance I had none; and the greatest of
corporeal blisses I felt no more from than the lowest animal. In a word,
as while a miser I had plenty without daring to use it, so now I had it
without appetite.

"But if I was not very happy in the height of my enjoyment, so I
afterwards became perfectly miserable; being soon overtaken by disease,
and reduced to distress, till at length, with a broken constitution and
broken heart, I ended my wretched days in a jail: nor can I think the
sentence of Minos too mild, who condemned me, after having taken a large
dose of avarice, to wander three years on the banks of Cocytus, with
the knowledge of having spent the fortune in the person of the grandson
which I had raised in that of the grandfather.

"The place of my birth, on my return to the world, was Constantinople,
where my father was a carpenter. The first thing I remember was, the
triumph of Belisarius, which was, indeed, most noble show; but nothing
pleased me so much as the figure of Gelimer, king of the African
Vandals, who, being led captive on this occasion, reflecting with
disdain on the mutation of his own fortune, and on the ridiculous empty
pomp of the conqueror, cried out, VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS MERE VANITY.'

"I was bred up to my father's trade, and you may easily believe so low a
sphere could produce no adventures worth your notice. However, I married
a woman I liked, and who proved a very tolerable wife. My days were
passed in hard labor, but this procured me health, and I enjoyed a
homely supper at night with my wife with more pleasure than I apprehend
greater persons find at their luxurious meals. My life had scarce any
variety in it, and at my death I advanced to Minos with great confidence
of entering the gate: but I was unhappily obliged to discover some
frauds I had been guilty of in the measure of my work when I worked
by the foot, as well as my laziness when I was employed by the day. On
which account, when I attempted to pass, the angry judge laid hold on
me by the shoulders, and turned me back so violently, that, had I had a
neck of flesh and bone, I believe he would have broke it."

CHAPTER XIII

Julian passes into a fop.

"My scene of action was Rome. I was born into a noble family, and heir
to a considerable fortune. On which my parents, thinking I should not
want any talents