THE USEFUL AND THE HIGHER BRANCHES OF
THE MATHEMATICS,
BY GOING TO SCHOOL ONLY A YEAR AND EIGHT MONTHS.

* * * * *

HE
DIED A BACHELOR
ON THE 24TH DAY OF OCTOBER, 1807,
IN THE 55TH YEAR OF HIS AGE;
AND WITHOUT FORGETTING
RELATIONS FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES
BEQUEATHED ONE FIFTH OF HIS PROPERTY
TO PUBLIC CHARITY.

READER
THE WORLD IS OPEN TO THEE.
"GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE." {22}

It was generally supposed that this beautiful composition was from the
pen of Mr. Prigg himself, who, sitting as he did so high on his branch of
the Family Tree,

COULD LOOK
WITH PRIDE AND SYMPATHY
ON
THE MANLY STRUGGLES
OF A HUMBLER MEMBER
LOWER DOWN!

High Birth, like Great Wealth, can afford to condescend!

Mrs. Prigg was worthy of her illustrious consort. She was of the noble
family of the Snobs, and in every way did honour to her progenitors. As
the reader is aware, there is what is known as a "cultivated voice," the
result of education--it is absolutely without affectation: there is also
the voice which, in imitation of the well-trained one, is little more
than a burlesque, and is affected in the highest degree: this was the
only fault in Mrs. Prigg's voice.

Mr. Prigg's home was charmingly small, but had all the pretensions of a
stately country house--its conservatory, its drawing-room, its study, and
a dining-room which told you as plainly as any dining-room could speak,
"I am related to Donkey Hall, where the Squire lives: I belong to the
same aristocratic family."

Then there was the great heavy-headed clock in the passage. He did not
appear at all to know that he had come down in the world through being
sold by auction for two pounds ten. He said with great plausibility, "My
worth is not to be measured by the amount of money I can command; I am
the same personage as before." And I thought it a very true observation,
but the philosophy thereof was a little discounted by his haught