rld; for when he is himself, and unruffled with intemperance,
you see his natural faculties exert themselves, and attract an eye of
favour towards his infirmities. But if we look round us here, how many
dull rogues are there, that would fain be what this poor man hates
himself for? All the noise towards six in the evening,[290] is caused by
his mimics and imitators. How ought men of sense to be careful of their
actions, if it were merely from the indignation of feeling themselves
ill drawn by such little pretenders? not to say, he that leads, is
guilty of all the actions of his followers: and a rake has imitators
whom you would never expect should prove so. Second-hand vice sure of
all is the most nauseous. There is hardly a folly more absurd, or which
seems less to be accounted for (though it is what we see every day) than
that grave and honest natures give into this way, and at the same time
have good sense, if they thought fit to use it: but the fatality (under
which most men labour) of desiring to be what they are not, makes them
go out of a method, in which they might be received with applause, and
would certainly excel, into one, wherein they will all their life have
the air of strangers to what they aim at. For this reason, I have not
lamented the metamorphosis of any one I know so much as of Nobilis, who
was born with sweetness of temper, just apprehension, and everything
else that might make him a man fit for his order. But instead of the
pursuit of sober studies and applications, in which he would certainly
be capable of making a considerable figure in the noblest assembly of
men in the world; I say, in spite of that good nature, which is his
proper bent, he will say ill-natured things aloud, put such as he was,
and still should be, out of countenance, and drown all the natural good
in him, to receive an artificial ill character, in which he will never
succeed: for Nobilis is no rake. He may guzzle as much wine as he
pleases, talk bawdy if he thinks fit; but he may as well drink
water-gruel, and go twice a day to church, for it will never do. I
pronounce it again, Nobilis is no rake. To be of that order, he must be
vicious against his will, and not so by study or application. All Pretty
Fellows are also excluded to a man, as well as all Inamaratos, or
persons of the epicene gender, who gaze at one another in the presence
of ladies. This class, of which I am giving you an account, is pretended
to also by men of s