As all affectation is wrong, and tends to expose and make a man
ridiculous, so the more distant he is from the thing which he affects to
appear, the stronger will the ridicule be which he excites, and the
greater the inconveniences into which he runs himself thereby. How
strangely absurd it is for a timorous person to procure a military post
in order to keep himself out of danger! and to fancy a red coat the
surest protection for cowardice! yet there have been those who have
purchased a commission to avoid being insulted; and have been so silly
as to think courage was interwoven with a sash, or tied up in a cockade.
But it would not be amiss for such gentlemen to consider, that it is not
in the power of scarlet cloth to alter nature; and that, as it is
expected a soldier should show himself a man of courage and intrepidity
upon all proper occasions, they may, by this means, meet the disgrace
they intended to avoid, and appear greater asses than they need to have
done. However, it is not in point of fortitude only that people are
liable to expose themselves, by assuming a character to which they are
not equal; but he who puts on a show of learning, of religion, of a
superior capacity in any respect, or, in short, of any virtue or
knowledge to which he has no proper claim, is, and will always be found
to be, "An Ass in a Lion's Skin."