The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. IIBrown, Thomas
General
The works of Mr. Thomas Brown, serious and comical : in prose and verse, with his remains in four volumes compleat; vol. II
Brown, Thomas
English wit and humor -- Early works to 1800; Erotic literature -- Early works to 1800; Latin literature -- Translations into English
Nothing conduces more to the rise and riches of a citizen, than these
three qualifications; nor can a man be a compleat trader without them:
_First_, To be a hypocrite undiscernably: _Secondly_, A knave, and not
mistrusted: And _Thirdly_, To be diligent in all matters that concern
his own interest. These profitable talents I must needs confess you are
absolute master of, and managed them with that admirable cunning, that I
always conceiv’d a different opinion of you, till I had given it
irrevocably into your power to feather your own nest, by compleating of
my ruin; and like a true politician (I thank you) you made an excellent
use of the lucky opportunity: for when the vicissitude of fortune had
put my affairs in a little disorder, and I thought it best for the
safety of my person to take foreign sanctuary, what friendly protections
did you make, from the teeth outwards, of the faithful service you
would do me in my absence, in order to compose and settle matters after
such a manner, that all the difficulties should be remov’d and made
easy, that had lessen’d my credit, and occasion’d me to withdraw? Upon
which, I being too forward to believe a person, I had rais’d from
sheep-skin breeches, and leathern shoe-ties, to the substance and
reputation of a topping citizen, could never forget the obligation he
lay under to do me justice, as to prove treacherous to his master,
trusted you alone with my whole effects, and the sole power of managing
my affairs according to your own discretion: but you, like a faithful
steward, when my back was turn’d, instead of endeavouring to support my
declining reputation, lessen’d my circumstances to my creditors far
beneath their real estimate, till you had bought up my notes to the sum
of a hundred thousand pounds, for an eighth part of their value, on your
own behalf, with the ready specie I had left you to compound my matters;
and like an honest man return’d them upon me at their full contents,
cheating my creditors of seven parts in eight of their due, sinking the
money to yourself, and leaving, like an ungrateful wretch, the kindest
of all masters to die a beggar; in this, I say, you shew’d yourself a
compleat citizen: _First_, A hypocrite in dissembling friendship to me:
_Secondly_, A knave, in cheating me and my creditors; And _Thirdly_, An
industrious man, in diligently converting so fair an opportunity so
foully to your own interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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