he 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. The boy is well fashioned, and will easily
fall into a graceful manner; wherefore I have a design to make him a
page to a great lady of my acquaintance; by which means he will be well
skilled in the common modes of life, and make a greater progress in the
world by that knowledge than wi