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Page 6
He discovered so little attention to school-learning that his
master, who was a very wise and worthy man, soon gave over all
care and trouble on that account, and, acquainting his parents
that their son proceeded extremely well in his studies, he
permitted his pupil to follow his own inclinations, perceiving
they led him to nobler pursuits than the sciences, which are
generally acknowledged to be a very unprofitable study, and indeed
greatly to hinder the advancement of men in the world: but though
master Wild was not esteemed the readiest at making his exercise,
he was universally allowed to be the most dexterous at stealing it
of all his schoolfellows, being never detected in such furtive
compositions, nor indeed in any other exercitations of his great
talents, which all inclined the same way, but once, when he had
laid violent hands on a book called Gradus ad Parnassum, i. e. A
step towards Parnassus, on which account his master, who was a man
of most wonderful wit and sagacity, is said to have told him he
wished it might not prove in the event Gradus ad Patibulum, i. e.
A step towards the gallows.
But, though he would not give himself the pains requisite to
acquire a competent sufficiency in the learned languages, yet did
he readily listen with attention to others, especially when they
translated the classical authors to him; nor was he in the least
backward, at all such times, to express his approbation. He was
wonderfully pleased with that passage in the eleventh Iliad where
Achilles is said to have bound two sons of Priam upon a mountain,
and afterwards to have released them for a sum of money. This was,
he said, alone sufficient to refute those who affected a contempt
for the wisdom of the ancients, and an undeniable testimony of the
great antiquity of priggism.[Footnote: This word, in the cant
language, signifies thievery.] He was ravished with the account
which Nestor gives in the same book of the rich booty which he
bore off (i.e. stole) from the Eleans. He was desirous of having
this often repeated to him, and at the end of every repetition he
constantly fetched a deep sigh, and said IT WAS A GLORIOUS BOOTY.
When the story of Cacus was read to him out of the eighth Aeneid
he generously pitied the unhappy fate of that great man, to whom
he thought Hercules much too severe: one of his schoolfellows
commending the dexterity of drawing the oxen backward by their
tails into his den, he smiled, and with some disdain said, HE
COULD HAVE TAUGHT HIM A BETTER WAY.
He was a passionate admirer of heroes, particularly of Alexander
the Great, between whom and the late king of Sweden he would
frequently draw parallels. He was much delighted with the accounts
of the Czar's retreat from the latter, who carried off the
inhabitants of great cities to people his own country. THIS, he
said, WAS NOT ONCE THOUGHT OF BY Alexander; BUT added, PERHAPS HE
DID NOT WANT THEM.
Happy had it been for him if he had confined himself to this
sphere; but his chief, if not only blemish, was, that he would
sometimes, from an humility in his nature too pernicious to true
greatness, condescend to an intimacy with inferior things and
persons. Thus the Spanish Rogue was his favourite book, and the
Cheats of Scapin his favourite play.
The young gentleman being now at the age of seventeen, his father,
from a foolish prejudice to our universities, and out of a false
as well as excessive regard to his morals, brought his son to
town, where he resided with him till he was of an age to travel.
Whilst he was here, all imaginable care was taken of his
instruction, his father endeavouring his utmost to inculcate
principles of honour and gentility into his son.
CHAPTER FOUR
MR. WILD'S FIRST ENTRANCE INTO THE WORLD. HIS ACQUAINTANCE WITH
COUNT LA RUSE.
An accident soon happened after his arrival in town which almost
saved the father his whole labour on this head, and provided
master Wild a better tutor than any after-care or expense could
have furnished him with. The old gentleman, it seems, was a
FOLLOWER of the fortunes of Mr. Snap, son of Mr. Geoffry Snap,
whom we have before mentioned to have enjoyed a reputable office
under the Sheriff of London and Middlesex, the daughter of which
Geoffry had intermarried with the Wilds. Mr. Snap the younger,
being thereto well warranted, had laid violent hands on, or, as
the vulgar express it, arrested one count La Ruse, a man of
considerable figure in those days, and had confined him to his own
house till he could find two seconds who would in a formal manner
give their words that the count should, at a certain day and place
appointed, answer all that one Thomas Thimble, a taylor, had to
say to him; which Thomas Thimble, it seems, alleged that the count
had, according to the law of the realm, made over his body to him
as a security for some suits of cloaths to him delivered by the
said Thomas Thimble. Now as the count, though perfectly a man of
honour, could not immediately find these seconds, he was obliged
for some time to reside at Mr. Snap's house: for it seems the law
of the land is, that whoever owes another 10 pounds, or indeed 2
pounds, may be, on the oath of that person, immediately taken up
and carried away from his own house and family, and kept abroad
till he is made to owe, 50 pounds, whether he will or no; for
which he is perhaps afterwards obliged to lie in gaol; and all
these without any trial had, or any other evidence of the debt
than the above said oath, which if untrue, as it often happens,
you have no remedy against the perjurer; he was, forsooth,
mistaken.
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