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Commerce, in which every Man finds his Account in the Misfortunes of his Neighbour? There is not, perhaps, a ſingle Man in eaſy Circumſtances, whoſe Death his greedy Heirs, nay and too often his own Children, do not ſecretly wiſh for; not a Ship at Sea, the Loſs of which would not be an agreeable Piece of News for ſome Merchant or another; not a Houſe, which a Debtor would not be glad to ſee reduced to Aſhes with all the Papers in it; not a Nation, which does not rejoice at the Misfortunes of its Neighbours. It is thus we find our Advantage in the Diſaſters of our Fellows, and that the Loſs of one Man almoſt always conſtitutes the Proſperity of another. But, what is ſtill more dangerous, public Calamities are ever the Objects of the Hopes and Expectations of a Multitude of private Perſons. Some are for Sickneſs, others for Mortality; theſe for War, thoſe for Famine. I have ſeen Monſters of Men weep for Grief at the Appearance of a plentiful Seaſon; and the great and fatal Conflagration of London, which coſt ſo many Wretches their Lives or their Fortunes, proved, perhaps, the making of more than Ten Thouſand Perſons. I know that Montaigne finds fault with Demades the Athenian for