Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

ing upon the ftrange conftitution of fome men, and how meanly they behave themselves in all forts of conditions. The perfon who begged of me is now as I take it, fifty: I was well acquainted with him till about the age of twenty-five; at which timea good eftate fell to him by the death of a relation. Upon coming to this unexpected good fortune, he ran into all the extravagancies imaginable; was frequently in drunken difputes, broke drawers heads, talked and fwore loud, was unmannerly to thofe above him, and infolent to thofe below him. I could not but remark, that it was the fame basenefs of spirit which worked in his behaviour in both fortunes: The fame little mind was infolent in riches and fhameless in poverty. This accident made me mufe upon the circumftance of being in debt in general, and folve in my mind what tempers were most apt to fall into this error of life, as well as the misfortune it must needs be to languish under fuch preffures. As for myself, my natural averfion to that fort of conversation which makes a figure with the generality of mankind, exempts me from any temptations to expence; and all my bufinefs lies. within a very narrow compafs, which is only to give an honest man who takes care of my estate, proper vouchers for his quarterly payments to me, and obferve what linen my laundrefs brings and takes away with her once a week: My steward brings his receipt ready for my figning; and I have a pretty implement with the refpective names of fhirts, cravats, handkerchiefs and ftockings, with proper numbers to know how to reckon with my laundrefs. This being almost all the bufmefs I have in the world for the care of my own affairs, I am at full leifure to obferve upon what others do, with rela tion to their equipage and economy.

When I walk the ftreet, and obferve the hurry about me in this town,

Where

Where with like hafte, tho' diff'rent ways they run, Some to undo, and fome to be undone ;

I fay, when I behold this vaft variety of perfons and humours, with the pains. they bath take for the accomplishment of the ends mentioned in the above verfes of Denham, I cannot much wonder at the endeavour after gain, but am extremely aftonished that men can be fo infenfible of the danger of running into debt. One would think it impoffible a man who is given to contract debts fhould know, that his creditor has, from that moment in which he tranfgreffes payment, fo much as that demand comes to in his debtor's honour, liberty, and fortune. One would think he did not know, that his creditor can fay the worst thing imaginable of him, to wit, that he is unjust, without defamation; and can feize his perfon, without being guilty of an affault. Yet fuch is the loose and abandoned turn of fome mens minds, that they can live under these conftant apprehenfions, and ftill go on to increase the cause of them. Can there be a more low and fervile condition, than to be ashamed, or afraid to fee any one man breathing? Yet he that is much in debt, is in that condition with relation to twenty different people. There are indeed circumftances. wherein men of honeft natures may become liable to debts, by fome unadvised behaviour in any great point of their life, or mortgaging a man's honefty as a fecurity for that of another, and the like; but these instances are fo particular and circumftantiated, that they cannot come within general confiderations: For one fuch case as one of thefe, there are ten, where a man, to keep up a farce of retinue and grandeur within his own houfe, fhall fhrink at the expectation of furly demands at his doors. The debtor is the creditor's criminal, and all the officers of power and state, whom we behold make fo great a figure,

a figure, are no other than fo many perfons in authority to make good his charge against him. Human fociety depends upon his having the vengeance law alots him; and the debtor owes his liberty to his neighbour, as much as the murderer does his life to his prince.

Our gentry are, generally speaking, in debt; and many families have put it into a kind of method of being fo from generation to generation. The father mortgages when his fon is very young; and the boy is to marry as foon as he is at age to redeem it, and find portions for his fifters. This, forfooth, is no great inconvenience to him; for he may wench, keep a publick table, or feed dogs, like a worthy English gentleman, till he has out-run half his eftate, and leave the fame incumbrance upon his first-born, and so on, till one man of more vigour than ordinary goes quite through the eftate, or fome man of fenfe comes into it, and fcorns to have an estate in partnership, that is to fay, liable to the demand or infult of any man living. There is my friend Sir ANDREW, though for many years a great and ge neral trader, was never the defendant in a law-fuit, in all the perplexity of business, and the iniquity of mankind at prefent: No one had any colour for the leaft complaint against his dealings with him. This is certainly as uncommon, and in its proportion as laudable in a citizen, as it is in a General never to have fuffered a difadvantage in fight. How different from this gentleman is Jack Truepenny, who has been an old acquaintance of Sir ANDREW and myfelf from boys, but could never learn our caution. Jack has a whorish unrefifting good-nature, which makes him incapable of having a property in any thing. His fortune, his reputation, his time and his capacity, are at any man's fervice that comes first. When he was at school, he was whipped thrice a-week for faults he took upon him to excufe others; fince he came into the business of

the

the world, he has been arrefted twice or thrice ayear for debts he had nothing to do with, but as furety for others; and I remember when a friend of his had fuffered in the vice of the town, all the phyfick his friend took was conveyed to him by Jack and infcribed, A bolus or an electuary for 'Mr Truepenny.' Jack had a good eftate left him, which came to nothing; because he believed all who pretended to demands upon it. This eafinefs and credulity destroy all the other merit he has; and he has all his life been a facrifice to others, without ever receiving thanks, or doing one good action.

[ocr errors]

I will end this difcourfe with a speech which I heard Jack make to one of his creditors, (of whom he deserved gentler ufage) after lying a whole night in cuftody at his fuit.

• SIR,

1

YOUR ingratitude for the many kindneffes I have done you, fhall not make me unthankful for the good you have done me, in letting me fee there is such a man as you in the world. I am 'obliged to you for the diffidence I fhall have all the reft of my life: I shall hereafter truft no man fo far as to be in his debt.?

No. 83.

TUESDAY. JUNE 5.

Animum picturâ pafcit inani.

R

VIRG. Æn. i. ver. 468.

DRYDEN.

And with an empty picture feeds his mind.

WHEN the weather hinoors,

diverfions without doors, I frequently make a little party with two or three felect friends, to vifit any thing curious that may be seen under covert. My

principal

principal entertainments of this nature are pictures, infomuch that when I have found the weather fet in to be very bad, I have taken a whole day's journey to fee a gallery that is furnished by the hands of great mafters. By this means, when the heavens are filled with clouds, when the earth swims in rain, and all nature wears a lowring countenance, I withdraw myself from these uncomfortable fcenes, into the vifionary world of art; where I meet with fhining landscapes, gilded triumphs, beautiful faces, and all thofe other objects that fill the mind with gay ideas, and difperfe that gloominess which is apt to hang upon it in thofe dark difconfolate seasons.

I was fome weeks ago in a course of these diverfions; which had taken such an entire poffeffion of my imagination, that they formed in it a fhort morning's dream, which I fhall communicate to my reader, rather as the first sketch and outlines of a vifion, than as a finished piece.

I dreamt that I was admitted into a long spacious gallery, which had one fide covered with pieces of all the famous painters who are now living, and the other with the works of the greatest masters that are dead,

On the fide of the living, I faw feveral perfons bufy in drawing, colouring, and defigning; on the fide of the dead painters, I could not discover more than one perfon at work, who was exceeding flow in his motions, and wonderfully nice in his touches.

I was refolved to examine the feveral artists that ftood before me, and accordingly applied myself to the fide of the living. The first I obferved at work in this part of the gallery was VANITY, with his hair tied behind him in a ribbon, and dressed like a Frenchman. All the faces he drew were very remarkable for their fmiles, and a certain finirking air which he bestowed indifferently on every age and degree of either fex. The toujours gai appeared even in his judges, bishops, and privy-counfet

lors:

« PředchozíPokračovat »