Men and Persons of Intrigue, are advanced very far
in Years, and beyond the Pleasures and Sallies of
Youth; but now WILL. observes, that the Young have
taken in the Vices of the Aged, and you shall have
a Man of Five and Twenty crafty, false, and intriguing,
not ashamed to over-reach, cozen, and beguile.
My Friend adds, that till about the latter end of
King Charles’s Reign, there was not a Rascal
of any Eminence under Forty: In the Places of
Resort for Conversation, you now hear nothing but
what relates to the improving Mens Fortunes, without
regard to the Methods toward it. This is so fashionable,
that young Men form themselves upon a certain Neglect
of every thing that is candid, simple, and worthy
of true Esteem; and affect being yet worse than they
are, by acknowledging in their general turn of Mind
and Discourse, that they have not any remaining Value
for true Honour and Honesty; preferring the Capacity
of being Artful to gain their Ends, to the Merit of
despising those Ends when they come in competition
with their Honesty. All this is due to the very
silly Pride that generally prevails, of being valued
for the Ability of carrying their Point; in a word,
from the Opinion that shallow and inexperienced People
entertain of the short-liv’d Force of Cunning.
But I shall, before I enter upon the various Faces
which Folly cover’d with Artifice puts on to
impose upon the Unthinking, produce a great Authority
[1] for asserting, that nothing but Truth and Ingenuity
has any lasting good Effect, even upon a Man’s
Fortune and Interest.
Truth and Reality have all the Advantages of Appearance,
and many more. If the Shew of any thing be good
for any thing, I am sure Sincerity is better:
For why does any Man dissemble, or seem to be that
which he is not, but because he thinks it good to
have such a Quality as he pretends to? for to counterfeit
and dissemble, is to put on the Appearance of some
real Excellency. Now the best way in the World
for a Man to seem to be any thing, is really to be
what he would seem to be. Besides that it is
many times as troublesome to make good the Pretence
of a good Quality, as to have it; and if a Man have
it not, it is ten to one but he is discover’d
to want it, and then all his Pains and Labour to seem
to have it is lost. There is something unnatural
in Painting, which a skillful Eye will easily discern
from native Beauty and Complexion.
It is hard to personate and act a Part long; for where
Truth is not at the bottom, Nature will always be
endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray
her self one time or other. Therefore if any Man
think it convenient to seem good, let him be so indeed,
and then his Goodness will appear to every body’s
Satisfaction; so that upon all accounts Sincerity
is true Wisdom. Particularly as to the Affairs
of this World, Integrity hath many Advantages over
all the fine and artificial ways of Dissimulation
and Deceit; it is much the plainer and easier, much