obedience to the lady
of the house, I disposed of my knife and fork in two parallel lines,
which is the figure I shall always lay them in for the future, though I
do not know any reason for it.

"It is not difficult for a man to see that a person has conceived an
aversion to him. For my own part, I quickly found, by the lady's looks,
that she regarded me as a very odd kind of fellow, with an unfortunate
aspect. For which reason I took my leave immediately after dinner, and
withdrew to my own lodgings. Upon my return home, I fell into a profound
contemplation on the evils that attend these superstitious follies of
mankind; how they subject us to imaginary afflictions and additional
sorrows, that do not properly come within our lot. As if the natural
calamities of life were not sufficient for it, we turn the most
indifferent circumstances into misfortunes, and suffer as much from
trifling accidents as from real evils. I have known the shooting of a
star spoil a night's rest; and have seen a man in love grow pale, and
lose his appetite, upon the plucking of a merry-thought. A screech-owl
at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers; nay, the
voice of a cricket hath struck more terror than the roaring of a lion.
There is nothing so inconsiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an
imagination that is filled with omens and prognostics. A rusty nail, or
a crooked pin, shoot up into prodigies.

"I remember, I was once in a mixed assembly, that was full of noise and
mirth, when on a sudden an old woman unluckily observed there were
thirteen of us in company. This remark struck a panic terror into
several who were present, insomuch that one or two of the ladies were
going to leave the room: but a friend of mine, taking notice that one of
our female companions was big with child, affirmed there were fourteen
in the room; and that, instead of portending one of the company should
die, it plainly foretold one of them should be born. Had not my friend
found out this expedient to break the omen, I question not but half the
women in the company would have fallen sick that very night.

"An old maid, that is troubled with the vapours, produces infinite
disturbances of this kind among her friends and neighbours. I once knew
a maiden aunt, of a great family, who is one of these antiquated sybils,
that forebodes and prophesies from one end of the year to the other. She
is always seeing apparitions, and hearing death-watc