nd charge it
upon the Carrier. And lastly, if I can no Way avoid restoring it, I
restore but Part of it.

_Phil._ A very fine Art.

_Pseud._ Sometimes I receive Money twice over, if I can: First at Home,
afterwards there where I have gone, and I am every where. Sometimes
Length of Time puts Things out of Remembrance: The Accounts are
perplexed, one dies, or goes a long Journey: And if nothing else will
hit, in the mean Time I make Use of other People's Money. I bring some
over to my Interest, by a Shew of Generosity, that they may help me out
in lying; but it is always at other People's Cost; of my own, I would
not give my own Mother a Doit. And tho' the Gain in each Particular may
be but small; but being many put together, makes a good round Sum; for
as I said, I concern myself in a great many Affairs; and besides all,
that I may not be catch'd, as there are many Tricks, this is one of the
chief. I intercept all the Letters I can, open them, and read them. If
any Thing in them makes against me, I destroy them, or keep them a long
Time before I deliver them: And besides all this, I sow Discord between
those that live at a great Distance one from another.

_Phil._ What do you get by that?

_Pseud._ There is a double Advantage in it. First of all, if that is not
performed that I have promised in another Person's Name, or in whose
Name I have received any Present, I lay it to this or that Man's Door,
that it was not performed, and so these Forgeries I make turn to a
considerable Account.

_Phil._ But what if he denies it?

_Pseud._ He's a great Way off, as suppose at _Basil_; and I promise to
give it in _England._ And so it is brought about, that both being
incensed, neither will believe the one the other, if I accuse them of
any Thing. Now you have a Specimen of my Art.

_Phil._ But this Art is what we Dullards call Theft; who call a Fig a
Fig, and a Spade a Spade.

_Pseud._ O Ignoramus in the Law! Can you bring an Action of Theft for
Trover or Conversion, or for one that having borrow'd a Thing forswears
it, that puts a Trick upon one, by some such Artifice?

_Phil._ He ought to be sued for Theft.

_Pseud._ Do but then see the Prudence of Artists. From these Methods
there is more Gain, or at least as much, and less Danger.

_Phil._ A Mischief take you, with your cheating Tricks and Lies, for I
han't a Mind to learn 'em. Good by to ye.

_Pseud._ You may go on, and be plagu'd with your ragged Truth. In the