He that Judges by the Outside, and Pronounces upon the Bare Appearance of
Things, runs a great many Mistakes in One; for there’s Temerity, Folly,
Pride, and Ill Nature in’t; Especially where the Censure is accompany’d
with Mockery and Scorn. ’Tis Inhumane, at the Best, to make Sport with
one Another’s Infirmities; which in Honour, and Christianity, we are
bound to Cover. But it is Pleasant enough then, if People will be
putting themselves upon a Trial of Skill, to see a Bantering Pretender
made an Ass by the very Man that He Himself has mark’d out for a Coxcomb:
Which is no other, in Plain _English_, then a Fair Appeal to the Company,
which is the Arranter Fool of the Two. In One Word, there’s Nothing lays
a Man more Open, then Laughing, out of Measure, and out of Season. To
Instance in a Cavalier of my Acquaintance that was up to the Ears in Love
with a very Fine Lady, that wanted neither Air, Shape, Dress, Quality,
nor any Other of Those Charming Circumstances to Recommend her to any
Honest Man to Play the Fool withal. He had his Mistress to a Comedy once,
where she was wonderfully pleas’d, but had the Ill Hap to _Laugh_ still
in the _Wrong Place_: The Poor Man Observ’d it, and his Fancy fell so
Sick upon’t, that the Fit went off immediately, and he was his own Man
for ever after. This comes of Judging by the Eye, without Consulting
the Reason of the Matter; and of setting our Hearts upon the Shape,
Colour, and External Beauty of Things, without any Regard to the Internal
Excellence and Virtue of them. The _Plain Nag_ here was like to have been
Laugh’d out of the Field, as well as out of Countenance, till he came
upon the Tryal to Prove Those to be _Jades Themselves_ that made _Sport_
with him.