An ingenious Drole

An ingenious Drole, who is since dead (and indeed it is well for him he is so, for he must have starved had he lived to this Day) used to give me an Account of his good Husbandry in the Management of his Learning. He was a general Dealer, and had his Amusements as well comical as serious. The merry Rogue said, when he wanted a Dinner, he writ a Paragraph of Table-Talk, and his Bookseller upon Sight paid the Reckoning. He was a very good Judge of what would please the People, and could aptly hit both the Genius of his Readers, and the Season of the Year in his Writings. His Brain, which was his Estate, had as regular and different Produce as other Men's Land. From the Beginning of November till the Opening of the Campagne, he writ Pamphlets and Letters to Members of Parliament, or Friends in the Country: But sometimes he would relieve his ordinary Readers with a Murder, and lived comfortably a Week or two upon strange and lamentable Accidents. A little before the Armies took the Field, his Way was to open you Attention with a Prodigy; and a Monster well writ, was two Guineas the lowest Price. This prepared his readers for his Great and Bloody News from Flanders in June and July. Poor Tom! He is gone - But I observed, he always looked well after a Battle, and was apparently fatter in a fighting Year. Had this honest careless Fellow lived till now, Famine had stared him in the Face, and interrupted his Merriment; as it must be a solid Affliction to all those whose Pen is their Portion.