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 be the ridicule which he excites, and
the greater the inconvenience into which he thereby runs himself. 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 shew 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
needed 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 shew 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.
[Illustration] [Page 189]