第42章 OF MEN WHO ARE NOT THEIR OWN MASTERS.(2)

He has the confidence to say,that there is a mug-house near Long Acre,where you may every evening hear an exact account of distresses of this kind.One complains that such a lady's finery is the occasion that his own wife and daughter appear so long in the same gown.Another,that all the furniture of her visiting apartment are no more hers than the scenery of a play are the proper goods of the actress.Nay,at the lower end of the same table,you may hear a butcher and a poulterer say,that,at their proper charge,all that family has been maintained since they last came to town.

The free manner in which people of fashion are discoursed on at such meetings is but a just reproach for their failures in this kind;but the melancholy relations of the great necessities tradesmen are driven to,who support their credit in spite of the faithless promises which are made them,and the abatement which they suffer when paid by the extortion of upper servants,is what would stop the most thoughtless man in the career of his pleasures,if rightly represented to him.

If this matter be not very speedily amended,I shall think fit to print exact lists of all persons who are not at their own disposal,though above the age of twenty-one;and as the trader is made bankrupt for absence from his abode,so shall the gentleman for being at home,if,when Mr.Morphew calls,he cannot give him an exact account of what passes in his own family.After this fair warning,no one ought to think himself hardly dealt with,if I take upon me to pronounce him no longer master of his estate,wife,or family,than he continues to improve,cherish,and maintain them upon the basis of his own property,without incursions upon his neighbour in any of these particulars.

According to that excellent philosopher Epictetus,we are all but acting parts in a play;and it is not a distinction in itself to be high or low,but to become the parts we are to perform.I am,by my office,prompter on this occasion,and shall give those who are a little out in their parts such soft hints as may help them to proceed,without letting it be known to the audience they were out;but if they run quite out of character,they must be called off the stage,and receive parts more suitable to their genius.Servile complaisance shall degrade a man from his honour and quality,and haughtiness be yet more debased.Fortune shall no longer appropriate distinctions,but nature direct us in the disposition both of respect and discountenance.As there are tempers made for command and others for obedience,so there are men born for acquiring possessions,and others incapable of being other than mere lodgers in the houses of their ancestors,and have it not in their very composition to be proprietors of anything.These men are moved only by the mere effects of impulse:their good-will and disesteem are to be regarded equally,for neither is the effect of their judgment.This loose temper is that which makes a man,what Sallust so well remarks to happen frequently in the same person,to be covetous of what is another's,and profuse of what is his own.This sort of men is usually amiable to ordinary eyes;but,in the sight of reason,nothing is laudable but what is guided by reason.The covetous prodigal is of all others the worst man in society.If he would but take time to look into himself,he would find his soul all over gashed with broken vows and promises;and his retrospect on his actions would not consist of reflections upon those good resolutions after mature thought,which are the true life of a reasonable creature,but the nauseous memory of imperfect pleasures,idle dreams,and occasional amusements.To follow such dissatisfying pursuits is it possible to suffer the ignominy of being unjust?Iremember in Tully's Epistle,in the recommendation of a man to an affair which had no manner of relation to money,it is said,"You may trust him,for he is a frugal man."It is certain,he who has not a regard to strict justice in the commerce of life,can be capable of no good action in any other kind;but he who lives below his income,lays up every moment of life armour against a base world,that will cover all his frailties while he is so fortified,and exaggerate them when he is naked and defenceless.

ADVERTISEMENT.

A stage-coach sets out exactly at six from Nando's coffee-house to Mr.Tiptoe's dancing-school,and returns at eleven every evening,for one shilling and four-pence.

N.B.--Dancing shoes,not exceeding four inches height in the heel,and periwigs,not exceeding three feet in length,are carried in the coach-box gratis.