For my Part, I am an ordinary
Mechanick, and I pray I may always have the Grace to know my self and
my Station. As little as I have learnt of the World, whenever I find
a Man well dress'd whom I do not know, and observe him mighty
cautious how he mixes in Company, or converses, or engages in any
kind of equal Affair with such as appear to be his Inferiors; I
always judge him, and I generally find him, to be some _new
Gentleman_, or rather _half Gentleman_, or _Mungrel_, an unnatural
Compound of Earth and _Brass_ like the Feet of _Nebuchadnezzar's_
Image. And if in the Way of my Business, I find some young Woman
Mistress of a newly fine furnished House, treating me with a kind of
Superiority, a distant sort of Freedom, and a high Manner of
Condescension that might become a Governor's Lady, I cannot help
imagining her to be some poor Girl that is but lately well married:
Or if I see something in her very haughty and imperious, I conclude
that 'tis not long since she was somebody's Servant Maid.
With Regard to the Respect shown them by the _true Gentry_ and
the _no Gentry_, our _half Gentry_ are exactly in the Case of the
_Mulattoes_ abovementioned. They are the Ridicule and Contempt of
both sides.
There is my former Acquaintance (but now he cannot speak to me)
the lumpish stupid _Jack Chopstick_, while he kept in his natural
Sphere, which (as that of all heavy Bodies) is the lowest, the Figure
he made among Acquaintance of his own Rank was well enough; none of
us envy'd him, 'tis true, nor none of us despis'd him: But now he has
got a little Money, the Case is exceedingly alter'd.
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