se--you never wull,
understand it, as you proceed: in one word, Charles, I have often told
you, and now again I tell you, once for aw, that the manoeuvres of
pliability are as necessary to rise in the world, as wrangling and logical
subtlety are to rise at the bar: why you see, sir, I have acquired a noble
fortune, a princely fortune--and how do you think I raised it?

_Eger_. Doubtless, sir, by your abilities.

_Sir Per_. Doubtless, sir, you are a blockhead:--nai, sir, I'll tell you
how I raised it. Sir, I raised it--by bowing; [_Bows ridiculously low._]
by bowing: sir, I never could stand straight in the presence of a great
man, but always bowed, and bowed, and bowed--as it were by instinct.

_Eger_. How do you mean by instinct, sir?

_Sir Per_. How do I mean by instinct? why, sir, I mean by--by--by the
instinct of interest, sir, which is the universal instinct of mankind.
Sir, it is wonderful to think, what a cordial, what an amicable, nay, what
an infallible influence, bowing has upon the pride and vanity of human
nature. Charles, answer me sincerely, have you a mind to be convinced of
the force of my doctrine, by example and demonstration?

_Eger_. Certainly, sir.

_Sir Per_. Then, sir, as the greatest favour I can confer upon you, I'll
give you a short sketch of the stages of my bowing,--as an excitement, and
a landmark for you to bow be--and as an infallible nostrum to rise in the
world.

_Eger_. Sir, I shall be proud to profit by your experience.

_Sir Per_. Vary weel, sir: sit ye down then, sit you down here: _[They sit
down_.]--and now, sir, you must recall to your thoughts, that your
grandfather was a man, whose penurious income of half pay was the sum
total of his fortune;--and, sir, aw my provision fra him was a modicum of
Latin, an expertness in arithmetic, and a short system of worldly counsel;
the principal ingredients of which were, a persevering industry, a rigid
economy, a smooth tongue, a pliability of temper, and a constant attention
to make every man well pleased with himself.

_Eger_. Very prudent advice, sir.

_Sir Per_. Therefore, sir, I lay it before you.--Now, sir, with these
materials I set out a raw-boned stripling fra the north, to try my fortune
with them here in the south; and my first step intill the world was, a
beggarly clerkship in Sawney Gordon's counting house, here in the city of
London, which you'll say afforded but a barren sort of a prospect.

_Eger_. It was not a ve