a narrow
sphere, and his reflections, though surprisingly just and acute, had not
attained to that maturity which age and experience give; but now, his
perceptions began to be more distinct, and extended to a thousand objects
which had never before come under his cognisance.

He had formerly imagined, but was now fully persuaded, that the sons of
men preyed upon one another, and such was the end and condition of their
being. Among the principal figures of life, he observed few or no
characters that did not bear a strong analogy to the savage tyrants of
the wood. One resembled a tiger in fury and rapaciousness; a second
prowled about like an hungry wolf, seeking whom he might devour; a third
acted the part of a jackal, in beating the bush for game to his voracious
employer; and the fourth imitated the wily fox, in practising a thousand
crafty ambuscades for the destruction of the ignorant and unwary. This
last was the department of life for which he found himself best qualified
by nature and inclination; and he accordingly resolved that his talent
should not rust in his possession. He was already pretty well versed in
all the sciences of play; but he had every day occasion to see these arts
carried to such a surprising pitch of finesse and dexterity, as
discouraged him from building his schemes on that foundation.

He therefore determined to fascinate the judgment, rather than the eyes
of his fellow-creatures, by a continual exercise of that gift of
deceiving, with which he knew himself endued to an unrivalled degree; and
to acquire unbounded influence with those who might be subservient to his
interest, by an assiduous application to their prevailing passions. Not
that play was altogether left out in the projection of his economy.--
Though he engaged himself very little in the executive part of gaming, he
had not been long in Vienna, when he entered into league with a genius of
that kind, whom he distinguished among the pupils of the academy, and who
indeed had taken up his habitation in that place with a view to pillage
the provincials on their first arrival in town, before they could be
armed with proper circumspection to preserve their money, or have time to
dispose of it in any other shape.

Similar characters naturally attract each other, and people of our hero's
principles are, of all others, the most apt to distinguish their own
likeness wheresoever it occurs; because they always keep the faculty of
disce