always
asked favours of this kind without the least submission or apparent
consciousness of dependence, and that he did not seem to look upon
a compliance with his request as an obligation that deserved any
extraordinary acknowledgments; but a refusal was resented by him as an
affront, or complained of as an injury; nor did he readily reconcile
himself to those who either denied to lend, or gave him afterwards any
intimation that they expected to be repaid. He was sometimes so far
compassionated by those who knew both his merit and distresses that they
received him into their families, but they soon discovered him to be a
very incommodious inmate; for, being always accustomed to an irregular
manner of life, he could not confine himself to any stated hours, or pay
any regard to the rules of a family, but would prolong his conversation
till midnight, without considering that business might require his
friend's application in the morning; and, when he had persuaded himself
to retire to bed, was not, without equal difficulty, called up to
dinner: it was therefore impossible to pay him any distinction without
the entire subversion of all economy, a kind of establishment which,
wherever he went, he always appeared ambitious to overthrow. It must
therefore be acknowledged, in justification of mankind, that it was
not always by the negligence or coldness of his friends that Savage was
distressed, but because it was in reality very difficult to preserve
him long in a state of ease. To supply him with money was a hopeless
attempt; for no sooner did he see himself master of a sum sufficient to
set him free from care for a day than he became profuse and luxurious.
When once he had entered a tavern, or engaged in a scheme of pleasure,
he never retired till want of money obliged him to some new expedient.
If he was entertained in a family, nothing was any longer to be regarded
there but amusement and jollity; wherever Savage entered, he immediately
expected that order and business should fly before him, that all should
thenceforward be left to hazard, and that no dull principle of domestic
management should be opposed to his inclination or intrude upon his
gaiety. His distresses, however afflictive, never dejected him; in his
lowest state he wanted not spirit to assert the natural dignity of wit,
and was always ready to repress that insolence which the superiority of
fortune incited, and to trample on that reputation which rose upon