O, Mr. Reflector, that I were not obliged to add,
that the creature who thus argues was but a type of me! Miserable
man! _I am that Lion!_ "Oft have I tried with roots and herbs to
allay that violence, but in vain; nothing but----."

Those tales which are renewed as often as the editors of papers want
to fill up a space in their unfeeling columns, of great
eaters,--people that devour whole geese and legs of mutton _for
wagers_,--are sometimes attempted to be drawn to a parallel with my
case. This wilful confounding of motives and circumstances, which
make all the difference of moral or immoral in actions, just suits
the sort of talent which some of my acquaintance pride themselves
upon. _Wagers_!--I thank Heaven, I was never mercenary, nor could
consent to prostitute a gift (though but a left-handed one) of
nature, to the enlarging of my worldly substance; prudent as the
necessities, which that fatal gift have involved me in, might have
made such a prostitution to appear in the eyes of an indelicate
world.

Rather let me say, that to the satisfaction of that talent which was
given me, I have been content to sacrifice no common expectations;
for such I had from an old lady, a near relation of our family, in
whose good graces I had the fortune to stand, till one fatal
evening----. You have seen, Mr. Reflector, if you have ever passed
your time much in country towns, the kind of suppers which elderly
ladies in those places have lying _in petto_ in an adjoining parlor,
next to that where they are entertaining their periodically invited
coevals with cards and muffins. The cloth is usually spread some
half-hour before the final rubber is decided, whence they adjourn to
sup upon what may emphatically be called _nothing_ ;--a sliver of
ham, purposely contrived to be transparent to show the china-dish
through it, neighboring a slip of invisible brawn, which abuts upon
something they call a tartlet, as that is bravely supported by an
atom of marmalade, flanked in its turn by a grain of potted beef,
with a power of such dishlings, _minims of hospitality_, spread in
defiance of human nature, or rather with an utter ignorance of what
it demands. Being engaged at one of these card-parties, I was obliged
to go a little before _supper-time_ (as they facetiously called the
point of time in which they are taking these shadowy refections), and
the old lady, with a sort of fear shining through the smile of
courteous hospitality that be