But I interrupt, go on; you published your paradoxes; well, and what did the learned world say to your paradoxes ?' 'Sir,' replied my son, 'the learned world said nothing to my paradoxes; nothing at all, Sir.

Every man of them was employed in praising his friends and himself, or condemning his enemies; and unfortunately, as I had neither, I suffered the cruellest mortification, neglect.
'As I was meditating one day in a coffee-house on the fate of my paradoxes, a little man happening to enter the room, placed himself in the box before me, and after some preliminary discourse, finding me to be a scholar, drew out a bundle of proposals, begging me to subscribe to a new edition he was going to give the world of Propertius, with notes.
This demand necessarily produced a reply that I had no money; and that concession led him to enquire into the nature of my expectations.
Finding that my expectations were just as great as my purse, I see, cried he, you are unacquainted with the town, I'll teach you a part of it.

Look at these proposals, upon these very proposals I have subsisted very comfortably for twelve years.

The moment a nobleman returns from his travels, a Creolian arrives from Jamaica, or a dowager from her country seat, I strike for a subscription.

I first besiege their hearts with flattery, and then pour in my proposals at the breach.