Did not Fortune also excel the painter Protogenes in his art? This artist having painted, in his best stile, a dog, exhausted from the chase, could not express the foam and slaver to his satisfaction. Exasperated at this failure, he took a sponge which had been steeped in divers colours, and dashed it over the picture, with an intention of effacing it. Fortune, however, directed the sponge so opportunely to the mouth of the dog, that it formed the very foam which Protogenes could not attain with the utmost efforts of his art. Had he not therefore reason to quote this verse: "Fortune will take a surer aim than me." In some instances Fortune has shewn superior justice to ourselves. Icetes haying instigated two soldiers to kill Timoleon, who resided at Adranon, in Sicily, these villains proposed to execute the murder when the General was affisting at a sacrifice. As they mingled in the crowd, and were in the act of giving the sign mutually agreed upon; at this critical moment, a third assassin struck one of the two soldiers on on the head with a sword, killed him on the spot, and immediately fed. The companion of the man who was killed, concluding that his plot was discovered, ran to the altar, entreated for mercy, and confessed the whole conspiracy. During this scene, the third af、 faffin, who had been apprehended as a murderer, was dragged along by the populace towards Timoleon, and the nobles of Sicily, who were then assembled. He pleaded that he had justly slain his father's murderer; and the truth was immediately proved by witnesses, who happened fortunately to be upon the spot. He accordingly not only received his pardon, but was gratified with the present of ten attic mincæ, for having saved the common father of all Sicily, while he intended only to revenge the death of his own lamented parent. ESSAY 26. ON THE CUSTOM OF WEARING CLOTHES. Whichever way I touch upon this subject, I shall be under the necessity of invading some of the boundaries of custom, so carefully has the shut up all the avenues. I was considering with myself, in this shivering season, whether, among those nations which have been lately discovered, the fashion of being entirely uncovered is not rendered necessary by the hot temperature of the air,, or if it was the original custom of mankind? The Holy Scriptures say," that all things under the sun are subject to the same laws;" and men of understanding, in yielding to this idea, distinguish between the laws of nature, and those which have been imposed by man's invention. Now as all creatures are sufficiently supplied with all things necessary for their existence, it is incredible. that that we alone should be brought into the world in so defective and indigent a condition, as to be literally incapable of sustaining life without borrowed assistance. As the rough barks the lofty trees defend, But as those who by artificial light exclude the light of day, so we, by borrowed aid, have extinguished our own powers; and it is very easy to discover that custom renders it impossible for us to live without that assistance which is in reality by no means requisite. Many of those nations, which have no knowledge of clothing, are situated under the same climate as ourselves, and even some in much colder climates: besides, the most sensible parts of our bodies, as the eyes and ears, the mouth and nose, and, among the peasants, even the breast, are constantly exposed to the air. Had we been necessitated, to go without clothing, nature would doubtless have fortified us with a thicker a thicker skin to hear the inclemency of the seasons, as she has done on the soles of our feet, and at our fingers' ends. I observe a much greater difference betwixt my clothes, and those of our peasants, than between theirs, and a man's who has no covering but his skin; many men (especially in Turkey) go naked on account of devotion. If a man should ask one of our beggars, who appears brisk and lively in the depth of winter, without any clothing but his shirt, while we are muffled up to the "how are you ears, able to endure the cold?" he might answer, "you go with your face bare, I am all face.". The duke of Florence having asked his fool how, being so thinly clad, he was able to support the cold, while he himself, though warmly wrapped up, could scarcely endure it? "Why," replied the fool, "use my receipt, put on at once all the clothes you have, and you'll feel no more cold than I." King Masinissa could never be prevailed on to go with his head covered, even in extreme old age, and in the most tempestuous weather. Herodotus informs us, that in the battles sought between the Egyp |