Foote seems to have been curiously lacking in conscience. He lived his life with a gayety which no poverty, misfortune, or physical suffering could long dampen. When he had money he spent it lavishly, and when the supply ran short he racked his clever brains to make a new hit. To accomplish this he was utterly unscrupulous, and never spared his friends or those to whom he was indebted, if he saw good material in their foibles. His victims smarted, but his ready tongue and personal geniality usually extricated him from consequent unpleasantness. Garrick, who aided him repeatedly, and who dreaded ridicule above all things, was his favorite butt, yet remained his friend. The irate members of the East India Company, who called upon him armed with stout cudgels to administer a castigation for an offensive libel in 'The Nabob,' were so speedily mollified that they laid their cudgels aside with their hats, and accepted his invitation to dinner. To us, much of his charm has evaporated, for it lay in these very personalities which held well-known people up to ridicule with a precision which made it impossible for the originals to escape recognition. Even irascible Dr. Johnson, who wished to disapprove of him, admitted that there was no one like "that fellow Foote." So this "Aristophanes of the English stage" was mourned when he died at the age of fifty-seven, and a company of his friends and fellow-actors buried him one evening by the dim light of torches in a cloister of Westminster Abbey. There is often a boisterous unreserve in the plays of Foote, as in other eighteenth-century drama, which revolts modern taste. As they consist of character study rather than incident, mere extracts are apt to appear incomplete and meaningless. Therefore it seems fairer to represent the famous wit not alone by formal citation, but also by some of his _bons mots_ extracted from the collection of William Cooke in his 'Memoirs of Samuel Foote' (2 vols. 1806). HOW TO BE A LAWYER From 'The Lame Lover' _Enter_ Jack _Serjeant_--So, Jack, anybody at chambers to-day? _Jack_--Fieri Facias from Fetter Lane, about the bill to be filed by Kit Crape against Will Vizard this term. _Serjeant_--Praying for an equal partition of plunder? _Jack_--Yes, sir. _Serjeant_--Strange world we live in, that even highwaymen can't be true to each other! [_Half aside to himself._] But we shall make Vizard refund; we'll show him what long hands the law has. _Jack_--Facias says that in all the books he can't hit a precedent. _Serjeant_--Then I'll make one myself; _Aut inveniam, aut faciam_, has been always my motto. The charge must be made for partnership profit, by bartering lead and gunpowder against money, watches, and rings, on Epping Forest, Hounslow Heath, and other parts of the kingdom. _Jack_--He says if the court should get scent of the scheme, the parties would all stand committed.