第55章 MR.BICKERSTAFF'S NEPHEWS.(1)

From my own Apartment,June 16.

The vigilance,the anxiety,the tenderness,which I have for the good people of England,I am persuaded,will in time be much commended;but I doubt whether they will be ever rewarded.However,I must go on cheerfully in my work of reformation:that being my great design,I am studious to prevent my labours increasing upon me;therefore am particularly observant of the temper and inclinations of childhood and youth,that we may not give vice and folly supplies from the growing generation.It is hardly to be imagined how useful this study is,and what great evils or benefits arise from putting us in our tender years to what we are fit or unfit;therefore on Tuesday last,with a design to sound their inclinations,I took three lads,who are under my guardianship,a-rambling,in a hackney-coach,to show them the town;as the lions,the tombs,Bedlam,and the other places which are entertainments to raw minds because they strike forcibly on the fancy.The boys are brothers,one of sixteen,the other of fourteen,the other of twelve.The first was his father's darling,the second his mother's,and the third is mine,who am their uncle.Mr.William is a lad of true genius;but,being at the upper end of a great school,and having all the boys below him,his arrogance is insupportable.

If I begin to show a little of my Latin,he immediately interrupts:

"Uncle,under favour,that which you say is not understood in that manner.""Brother,"says my boy Jack,"you do not show your manners much in contradicting my uncle Isaac!""You queer cur,"says Mr.

William,"do you think my uncle takes any notice of such a dull rogue as you are?"Mr.William goes on,"He is the most stupid of all my mother's children;he knows nothing of his book;when he should mind that,he is hiding or hoarding his taws and marbles,or laying up farthings.His way of thinking is,four-and-twenty farthings make sixpence,and two sixpences a shilling;two shillings and sixpence half a crown,and two half crowns five shillings.So within these two months the close hunks has scraped up twenty shillings,and we will make him spend it all before he comes home."Jack immediately claps his hands into both pockets,and turns as pale as ashes.There is nothing touches a parent,and such I am to Jack,so nearly as a provident conduct.This lad has in him the true temper for a good husband,a kind father,and an honest executor.All the great people you see make considerable figures on the exchange,in court,and sometimes in senates,are such as in reality have no greater faculty than what may be called human instinct,which is a natural tendency to their own preservation,and that of their friends,without being capable of striking out of the road for adventures.There is Sir William Scrip was of this sort of capacity from his childhood;he has brought the country round him,and makes a bargain better than Sir Harry Wildfire,with all his wit and humour.Sir Harry never wants money but he comes to Scrip,laughs at him half an hour,and then gives bond for the other thousand.The close men are incapable of placing merit anywhere but in their pence,and therefore gain it;while others,who have larger capacities,are diverted from the pursuit by enjoyments which can be supported only by that cash which they despise;and therefore are in the end slaves to their inferiors both in fortune and understanding.

I once heard a man of excellent sense observe,that more affairs in the world failed by being in the hands of men of too large capacities for their business,than by being in the conduct of such as wanted abilities to execute them.Jack,therefore,being of a plodding make,shall be a citizen:and I design him to be the refuge of the family in their distress,as well as their jest in prosperity.His brother Will shall go to Oxford with all speed,where,if he does not arrive at being a man of sense,he will soon be informed wherein he is a coxcomb.There is in that place such a true spirit of raillery and humour,that if they cannot make you a wise man,they will certainly let you know you are a fool;which is all my cousin wants,to cease to be so.Thus having taken these two out of the way,I have leisure to look at my third lad.I observe in the young rogue a natural subtlety of mind,which discovers itself rather in forbearing to declare his thoughts on any occasion,than in any visible way of exerting himself in discourse.For which reason I will place him where,if he commits no faults,he may go further than those in other stations,though they excel in virtues.