The first was in 1712, before he was made dean of St. Patrick's. He had deposited near four hundred pounds in the hands of his friend Stratford, which was all the money he then possessed in the world. An account was brought him that Stratford was broke. What effect this had on him he thus describes in his Journal to Stella. "I came home reflecting a little; nothing concerned me but MD. I called all my philosophy and religion up; and, I thank God, it did not keep me awake beyond my usual time above a quarter of an hour."
Of the other he gives the following account, in a letter to Mr. Worrall, dated Quilca, June 11, 1725.
"Your letter has informed me of what I did not expect, that I am just even with the world; for, if my debts were paid, I think I should not have fifty pounds beside my goods. I have not railed, nor fretted, nor lost my sleep, nor stomach, I thank God. My greatest trouble is, that some friends, whom I intended to make easy during their lives, and the publick, to which I bequeathed the reversion, will be disappointed." And in another to Dr. Sheridan, of the same date, he says, "You are to know that by Mr. Pratt's ruin I lose only twelve hundred and fifty pounds, which he owes me. So that I am now, as near as I can compute, not worth one farthing but my goods. I am therefore just to begin the world. I should value it less, if some friends and the publick were not to suffer; and I am ashamed to see myself so little concerned on account of the two latter. For, as to myself, I have learned to consider what is left, and not what is lost. — But enough of this."
