“But a short application, though over true,” remarked Herbert.
“I have rather condensed the old monk, and perhaps wrongly, as the latter part of his moral reminds me strongly of a passage in Gay’s fables. ‘The conjurer,’ says the old monk, ‘puts down a dish, but places nothing in it. Then he begins to prate and mock the spectators with fair words and long speeches. Soon he inquires of them: What is in the dish? they look, and it is full of pennies. These he distributes among the bystanders; with thanks they receive his gifts, and eagerly close their hands on them; anon, they open their hands, and lo, there is nothing.’”
“You allude,” said Herbert, “to Gay’s lines, where he describes his conjurer performing his tricks.
“‘Trick after trick deludes the train,
He shakes his bag, and shows all fair,
His fingers spread, and nothing there,
Then bids it rain with showers of gold;
And now his ivory eggs are told.’”
“Hardly so much,” replied Lathom, “as the four lines where he says of FORTUNE:
“‘A purse she to the thief exposed;