n any of his ordinary words or actions to discover any
proof of reason. Upon this foundation my friend has set forth, that he
is illegally master of his coffers, and has writ two epigrams to signify
his own pretensions and sufficiency for spending that estate. He has
inserted in his plea some things which I fear will give offence; for he
pretends to argue, that though a man has a little of the knave mixed
with the fool, he is nevertheless liable to the loss of goods; and makes
the abuse of reason as just an avoidance of an estate as the total
absence of it. This is what can never pass; but witty men are so full of
themselves, that there is no persuading them; and my friend will not be
convinced, but that upon quoting Solomon, who always used the word
"fool" as a term of the same signification with "unjust," and makes all
deviation from goodness and virtue to come under the notion of folly--I
say, he doubts not, but by the force of this authority, let his idiot
uncle appear never so great a knave, he shall prove him a fool at the
same time. This affair led the company here into an examination of these
points; and none coming here but wits, what was asserted by a young
lawyer, that a lunatic is in the care of the Chancery, but a fool in
that of the Crown, was received with general indignation. "Why that?"
says old Renault. "Why that? Why must a fool be a courtier more than a
madman? This is the iniquity of this dull age: I remember the time when
it went on the mad side; all your top wits were scowrers,[393] rakes,
roarers, and demolishers of windows. I remember a mad lord who was drunk
five years together, and was the envy of that age, and is faintly
imitated by the dull pretenders to vice and madness in this. Had he
lived to this day, there had not been a fool in fashion in the whole
kingdom." When Renault had done speaking, a very worthy man assumed the
discourse: "This is," said he, "Mr. Bickerstaff, a proper argument for
you to treat in your article from this place; and if you would send your
Pacolet into all our brains, you would find, that a little fibre or
valve, scarce discernible, makes the distinction between a politician
and an idiot. We should therefore throw a veil upon those unhappy
instances of human nature, who seem to breathe without the direction of
reason and understanding, as we should avert our eyes with abhorrence
from such as live in perpetual abuse and contradiction to these noble
faculties. Shall th