n foundations, sandy enough, but dear to him from
practical considerations, and he would read the book with true uneasiness
of spirit; for conceive the blow if, by some plaguy accident, this Pen
were to convert him! It was a different kind of doctrine that he judged
profitable for himself and others. "A good sermon of Mr. Gifford's at
our church, upon 'Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven.' A very excellent
and persuasive, good and moral sermon. He showed, like a wise man, that
righteousness is a surer moral way of being rich than sin and villainy."
It is thus that respectable people desire to have their Greathearts
address them, telling, in mild accents, how you may make the best of both
worlds, and be a moral hero without courage, kindness, or troublesome
reflection; and thus the Gospel, cleared of Eastern metaphor, becomes a
manual of worldly prudence, and a handy-book for Pepys and the successful
merchant.

The respectability of Pepys was deeply grained. He has no idea of truth
except for the Diary. He has no care that a thing shall be, if it but
appear; gives out that he has inherited a good estate, when he has
seemingly got nothing but a lawsuit; and is pleased to be thought liberal
when he knows he has been mean. He is conscientiously ostentatious. I
say conscientiously, with reason. He could never have been taken for a
fop, like Pen, but arrayed himself in a manner nicely suitable to his
position. For long he hesitated to assume the famous periwig; for a
public man should travel gravely with his fashions, not foppishly before,
nor dowdily behind, the central movement of his age. For long he durst
not keep a carriage; that, in his circumstances, would have been
improper; but a time comes, with the growth of his fortune, when the
impropriety has shifted to the other side, and he is "ashamed to be seen
in a hackney." Pepys talked about being "a Quaker or some very
melancholy thing;" for my part, I can imagine nothing so melancholy,
because nothing half so silly, as to be concerned about such problems.
But so respectability and the duties of society haunt and burden their
poor devotees; and what seems at first the very primrose path of life,
proves difficult and thorny like the rest. And the time comes to Pepys,
as to all the merely respectable, when he must not only order his
pleasures, but even clip his virtuous movements, to the public patter of
the age. There was some juggling among officials to avoi