Fable XIII. The Humorist

WH A T is this that has befallen Melanthus i nothing without, 'tis all within; his affairs go to - his wi(h; every bodj^ ftnTes to please him. what then? has he got the spleen? he went to bed last night. the delight of mankind; this morning one bluihes for him, one should conceal it: in getting up, the fold of a sock displeased him, the whole day will therefore be stormy, and eyery one must suffer for it: now he flrikes with terror, now he moves to pity; sometimes he cries like a child, sometimes he roars like a lion; a wild*and malignant vapour troubles and clouds his imagination, as the ink of his ink-horn daubs his singers; do not venture to speak to him of the things he loved most but a moment ago; for the very reason that he loved them, he can no longer endure them; the parties of pleasure he fo much desired are now grown irksome to him, they must be broke; he strives to contradidl, to complain, to pique others; he is mad to see they will not be angry; oftentimes he will push at the air like a furious bull, who, with whetted horns, rushes on to sight against the winds; when he wants a pretence to attack others, he will fall upon himself;

he blames himself, he finds himself good for nothing, he discourages himself, and takes it very ill if any one attempt to comfort him; he chufes to be alone, and cannot support solitude; he returns to company, and frets at them; do they hold their peace, their afFeded iilence offends him; do ihcy speak low^ he imagines 'tis against him;■ do they speak loud, he finds them noisy, and too merry. whilC' he is dull; are they dull^ that, diilnefs appears to him a reproach of his failings; do they laugh, he fufpedls it is at him; what (hould one do? why, even be as firm and patient as he is infupportablc, and wait calmly till to-morrow^ that he recover the wits he had yesterday: this strange humour goes as it comes; when it seizes him,> one might say it is a movement of a machine, which runs itself down all at once; he is such as they paint poffeifed people; his reason is in a manner inverted, 'tis downright madness itself; pirovoke him, and he will tell you at -noon that it is night; for there is no longer either day or night to a head difotdered by its caprice: sometimes he cannot help being aflonifhed at his outrageous mad sits; in spite of his moroseness, he will smile at the extravagant expreflions that have escaped him: but what method is there of foreseeing those storms, and of conjuring the temped? none; there are no good almanacs to predial: this bad weather: beware of saying, to-morrow we shall go and divert ourselves in sach a garden; the man of to day, will Doi be the man of to-morrov; he ii^o pramifei yoa jost now, will, by and by, dtfappetr, and yon (hall not know where to lay hold of hini» to pat him in mind of his promise; in his place yoa will find an I don't know what» whidi has neither form nor name, which can have neither, and which yoa coold not define two moments together after the same manner t (bdy him well, then say of him what yoa pletfe; it will not be trne the moment after yoa have laid it; this inconfifient entity woidd and woold not; it threatens, it trembles, it blends ridicnloas haughdnefi with unworthy meannefies; it weeps, it laughs, it i^ays, is furious in the mod whimsical and foolish fit of fury; he is pleasant, eloquent, fubde, full of new turns, the' he has not eyen a (hadow of reason remaining: take good care to say nothing to him that is not just, predfe, and exadly reasonable; he would well know how to take his advantage of it, and would artfully turn the chace upon you; he would pa& forthwith from his own error to attack yours,' and would become reasonable for the sole pleasure of convincing you that you are not fo: it was a mere nothing that made him fly up to the clouds; but what is become of that nothing? it is lost in the fray; it is no more in question; he knows no longer what made him angry; he knows only that he is angry, and that he will be angry, and even this he knows not always; he imagines oftentimes that all who speak to him are in a pafEon, and that himself is the only calm perfoD, as a man who has the jaundice thinks all he sees yellow, tho* the yellow be only in his own eyes, but perhaps he will (pare certain persons, to whom he owes more than to others, or whom he seems to have a greater regard for. no; his extravagant humour knows no body; it falls indifferently on all it meets; the firfl: comer is as good as any to discharge his spleen upon, all is alike to him, fo he be but angry; he would abuse the persons he ought mod to regard; he loves them no more; he is no more loved by them; he is persecuted, betrayed; he owes nothing to any whadbever: but (lay a moment, see aao- ^btr scene! he stands in need of every body; he loves, he is beloved again; he flatters, he insinuates himself, he bewitches all thpfe who could no longer bear him; be confesses his fault, he laughs at his own oddities, he mimics himself, and you would think ypu saw him really in his mad sits, he does it fo mudi to the life, after diis farce, adted At his own expencc, you think surely that he will at least never more play the Demoniac, alas! you deceive yonr&lf; he wiU do it again this very night, and laugh at it again to-morrow, without the fmallefi reformation.

DRAGON

FOXES.