This fable points out to us the different characters of those that
recommend themselves in a vain-glorious way by false and borrowed
lights; and of those whose real merit procures them a good esteem
wherever they go. Poverty and folly having, at the same time,
possession of any one man, cannot fail of making him an object of pity,
if not of contempt; but, when an empty conceited pride happens to be
joined with them, they render the creature in whom they meet at the same
time despicable and ridiculous. One who often attends at court, not
because he has a place, but because he has not, should not value himself
upon his condition. They who go to church out of vanity and curiosity,
and not for pure devotion, should not value themselves upon their
religion, for it is not worth a straw. They who eat at a threepenny
ordinary, and sometimes not so well, should not boast either of their
dinner or company. In short, nobody is a better gentleman, than he whose
own honest industry supplies him with a plenty of all necessaries; who
is so well acquainted with honour, as never to say or do a mean and
unjust thing; and who despises an idle scoundrel, but knows how to
esteem men of his own principles. Such a one is a person of the first
quality, though he has never a title, and ought to take place of every
man who is not so good as himself.