A Dialogue Between Young Master Wild and Count La Ruse1, Which, Having Extended to the Rejoinder, had a Very Quiet, Easy, And Natural Conclusion.
One evening, after the Miss Snaps were retired2 to rest, the count thus addressed himself to young Wild: “You cannot, I apprehend3, Mr. Wild, be such a stranger to your own great capacity, as to be surprised when I tell you I have often viewed, with a mixture of astonishment4 and concern, your shining qualities confined to a sphere where they can never reach the eyes of those who would introduce them properly into the world, and raise you to an eminence5 where you may blaze out to the admiration6 of all men. I assure you I am pleased with my captivity7, when I reflect I am likely to owe to it an acquaintance, and I hope friendship, with the greatest genius of my age; and, what is still more, when I indulge my vanity with a prospect8 of drawing from obscurity (pardon the expression) such talents as were, I believe, never before like to have been buried in it: for I make no question but, at my discharge from confinement9, which will now soon happen, I shall be able to introduce you into company, where you may reap the advantage of your superior parts.
“I will bring you acquainted, sir, with those who, as they are capable of setting a true value on such qualifications, so they will have it both in their power and inclination10 to prefer you for them. Such an introduction is the only advantage you want, without which your merit might be your misfortune; for those abilities which would entitle you to honour and profit in a superior station may render you only obnoxious12 to danger and disgrace in a lower.”
Mr. Wild answered, “Sir, I am not insensible of my obligations to you, as well for the over-value you have set on my small abilities, as for the kindness you express in offering to introduce me among my superiors. I must own my father hath often persuaded me to push myself into the company of my betters; but, to say the truth, I have an aukward pride in my nature, which is better pleased with being at the head of the lowest class than at the bottom of the highest. Permit me to say, though the idea may be somewhat coarse, I had rather stand on the summit of a dunghill than at the bottom of a hill in Paradise. I have always thought it signifies little into what rank of life I am thrown, provided I make a great figure therein, and should be as well satisfied with exerting my talents well at the head of a small party or gang, as in the command of a mighty13 army; for I am far from agreeing with you, that great parts are often lost in a low situation; on the contrary, I am convinced it is impossible they should be lost. I have often persuaded myself that there were not fewer than a thousand in Alexander’s troops capable of performing what Alexander himself did.
“But, because such spirits were not elected or destined14 to an imperial command, are we therefore to imagine they came off without a booty? or that they contented15 themselves with the share in common with their comrades? Surely, no. In civil life, doubtless, the same genius, the same endowments, have often composed the statesman and the prig, for so we call what the vulgar name a thief. The same parts, the same actions, often promote men to the head of superior societies, which raise them to the head of lower; and where is the essential difference if the one ends on Tower-hill and the other at Tyburn? Hath the block any preference to the gallows16, or the ax to the halter, but was given them by the ill-guided judgment17 of men? You will pardon me, therefore, if I am not so hastily inflamed18 with the common outside of things, nor join the general opinion in preferring one state to another. A guinea is as valuable in a leathern as in an embroidered20 purse; and a cod’s head is a cod’s head still, whether in a pewter or a silver dish.”
The count replied as follows: “What you have now said doth not lessen21 my idea of your capacity, but confirms my opinion of the ill effect of bad and low company. Can any man doubt whether it is better to be a great statesman or a common thief? I have often heard that the devil used to say, where or to whom I know not, that it was better to reign22 in Hell than to be a valet-dechambre in Heaven, and perhaps he was in the right; but sure, if he had had the choice of reigning23 in either, he would have chosen better. The truth therefore is, that by low conversation we contract a greater awe24 for high things than they deserve. We decline great pursuits not from contempt but despair. The man who prefers the high road to a more reputable way of making his fortune doth it because he imagines the one easier than the other; but you yourself have asserted, and with undoubted truth, that the same abilities qualify you for undertaking25, and the same means will bring you to your end in both journeys — as in music it is the same tune11, whether you play it in a higher or a lower key. To instance in some particulars: is it not the same qualification which enables this man to hire himself as a servant, and to get into the confidence and secrets of his master in order to rob him, and that to undertake trusts of the highest nature with a design to break and betray them? Is it less difficult by false tokens to deceive a shopkeeper into the delivery of his goods, which you afterwards run away with, than to impose upon him by outward splendour and the appearance of fortune into a credit by which you gain and he loses twenty times as much? Doth it not require more dexterity26 in the fingers to draw out a man’s purse from his pocket, or to take a lady’s watch from her side, without being perceived of any (an excellence27 in which, without flattery, I am persuaded you have no superior), than to cog a die or to shuffle28 a pack of cards? Is not as much art, as many excellent qualities, required to make a pimping porter at a common bawdy-house as would enable a man to prostitute his own or his friend’s wife or child? Doth it not ask as good a memory, as nimble an invention, as steady a countenance30, to forswear yourself in Westminster-hall as would furnish out a complete tool of state, or perhaps a statesman himself? It is needless to particularize every instance; in all we shall find that there is a nearer connexion between high and low life than is generally imagined, and that a highwayman is entitled to more favour with the great than he usually meets with. If, therefore, as I think I have proved, the same parts which qualify a man for eminence in a low sphere, qualify him likewise for eminence in a higher, sure it can be no doubt in which he would chuse to exert them. Ambition, without which no one can be a great man, will immediately instruct him, in your own phrase, to prefer a hill in Paradise to a dunghill; nay31, even fear, a passion the most repugnant to greatness, will shew him how much more safely he may indulge himself in the free and full exertion32 of his mighty abilities in the higher than in the lower rank; since experience teaches him that there is a crowd oftener in one year at Tyburn than on Tower-hill in a century.” Mr. Wild with much solemnity rejoined, “That the same capacity which qualifies a mill-ken,[Footnote: A housebreaker.] a bridle-cull,[Footnote: A highwayman.] or a buttock-and-file, [Footnote: A shoplifter. Terms used in the Cant33 Dictionary.] to arrive at any degree of eminence in his profession, would likewise raise a man in what the world esteem34 a more honourable35 calling, I do not deny; nay, in many of your instances it is evident that more ingenuity36, more art, are necessary to the lower than the higher proficients37. If, therefore, you had only contended that every prig might be a statesman if he pleased, I had readily agreed to it; but when you conclude that it is his interest to be so, that ambition would bid him take that alternative, in a word, that a statesman is greater or happier than a prig, I must deny my assent38. But, in comparing these two together, we must carefully avoid being misled by the vulgar erroneous estimation of things, for mankind err19 in disquisitions of this nature as physicians do who in considering the operations of a disease have not a due regard to the age and complexion39 of the patient. The same degree of heat which is common in this constitution may be a fever in that; in the same manner that which may be riches or honour to me may be poverty or disgrace to another: for all these things are to be estimated by relation to the person who possesses them. A booty of L10 looks as great in the eye of a bridle-cull, and gives as much real happiness to his fancy, as that of as many thousands to the statesman; and doth not the former lay out his acquisitions in whores and fiddles40 with much greater joy and mirth than the latter in palaces and pictures? What are the flattery, the false compliments of his gang to the statesman, when he himself must condemn41 his own blunders, and is obliged against his will to give fortune the whole honour of success? What is the pride resulting from such sham42 applause, compared to the secret satisfaction which a prig enjoys in his mind in reflecting on a well-contrived and well-executed scheme? Perhaps, indeed, the greater danger is on the prig’s side; but then you must remember that the greater honour is so too. When I mention honour, I mean that which is paid them by their gang; for that weak part of the world which is vulgarly called THE WISE see both in a disadvantageous and disgraceful light; and as the prig enjoys (and merits too) the greater degree of honour from his gang, so doth he suffer the less disgrace from the world, who think his misdeeds, as they call them, sufficiently43 at last punished with a halter, which at once puts an end to his pain and infamy44; whereas the other is not only hated in power, but detested45 and contemned46 at the scaffold; and future ages vent29 their malice47 on his fame, while the other sleeps quiet and forgotten. Besides, let us a little consider the secret quiet of their consciences: how easy is the reflection of having taken a few shillings or pounds from a stranger, without any breach48 of confidence, or perhaps any great harm to the person who loses it, compared to that of having betrayed a public trust, and ruined the fortunes of thousands, perhaps of a great nation! How much braver is an attack on the highway than at a gaming-table; and how much more innocent the character of a b — dy-house than a c — t pimp!” He was eagerly proceeding49, when, casting his eyes on the count, he perceived him to be fast asleep; wherefore, having first picked his pocket of three shillings, then gently jogged him in order to take his leave, and promised to return to him the next morning to breakfast, they separated: the count retired to rest, and master Wild to a night-cellar.
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ruse
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| n.诡计，计策；诡计 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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err
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| vi.犯错误，出差错 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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dexterity
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| n.(手的)灵巧，灵活 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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shuffle
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| n.拖著脚走，洗纸牌；v.拖曳，慢吞吞地走 | |
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vent
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| n.通风口，排放口；开衩；vt.表达，发泄 | |
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countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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cant
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| n.斜穿，黑话，猛扔 | |
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esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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proficients
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| 精通的，熟练的( proficient的名词复数 ) | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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fiddles
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| n.小提琴( fiddle的名词复数 )；欺诈；（需要运用手指功夫的）细巧活动；当第二把手v.伪造( fiddle的第三人称单数 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动 | |
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41
condemn
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| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
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42
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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44
infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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45
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
contemned
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| v.侮辱，蔑视( contemn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
malice
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| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
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48
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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49
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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