ABSTRACT
Few things show the human character in a more ridiculous light than the circumstance of will-making. It is the latest opportunity we have of exercising the natural perversity of the disposition, and we take care to make a good use of it. Many persons have a superstition on the subject of making their last will and testament, and think that when everything is ready signed and sealed, there is nothing farther left to delay their departure. The art of will-making chiefly consists in baffling the importunity of expectation. The whole will of Nicholas Gimcrack, Esq. is a curious document and exact picture of the mind of the worthy virtuoso defunct, where his various follies, littlenesses, and quaint humours are set forth, as orderly and distinct. A poor woman at Plymouth who could not afford the expence of a will thought to leave what little property she had in wearing-apparel and household moveables to her friends and relations.
