SLEEPER.
The old clergyman seems able to hope in contempt of probability.
SPIRIT.
That which cannot possibly happen may serve very well to hope for; a man has no invention who must be satisfied that an event may take place before he can hope for it. This clergyman, through his skill in hoping, has a store of blessings in his own imagination; and whatever misfortune occurs he can find an equivalent advantage. I have a painful disorder in my box which I think will be urgent enough to interrupt his visions. I will bestow it upon him: his contrivance will be to hope for a cure, but it will give him some real substantial pangs that cannot be so reasoned away. We will now pass on.
SLEEPER.
Here is a young man who looks happy.
SPIRIT.
Suspend your judgment till we have weighed his condition. He has both calamities and blessings: I have put both into the scales.
SLEEPER.
His happiness descends: I was right.