Heart.
* Character of the Presbyterians.
In the first place, Jack was a very young fellow, by much the youngest
of the three brothers, and people, indeed, wondered how such a young
upstart jackanapes should grow so pert and saucy, and take so much upon
him.
Jack bragged of greater abilities than other men. He was well gifted,
as he pretended: I need not tell you what secret influence that has upon
the ladies.
Jack had a most scandalous tongue, and persuaded Peg that all mankind,
besides himself, were plagued by that scarlet-faced woman, Signiora
Bubonia.* "As for his brother, Lord Peter, the tokens were evident on
him--blotches and scabs. His brother Martin, though he was not quite
so bad, had some nocturnal pains, which his friends pretended were only
scorbutical; but he was sure it proceeded from a worse cause." By such
malicious insinuations he had possessed the lady that he was the only
man in the world of a sound, pure, and untainted constitution, though
there were some that stuck not to say that Signiora Bubonia and Jack
railed at one another only the better to hide an intrigue, and that Jack
had been found with Signiora under his cloak, carrying her home on a
dark stormy night.
* The Woman of Babylon, or the Pope.
Jack was a prodigious ogler; he would ogle you the outside of his eye
inward, and the white upward.
Jack gave himself out for a man of a great estate in the Fortunate
Islands, of which the sole property was vested in his person. By this
trick he cheated abundance of poor people of small sums, pretending to
make over plantations in the said islands; but when the poor wretches
came there with Jack's grant, they were beat, mocked, and turned out of
doors.
I told you that Peg was whimsical, and loved anything that was
particular. In that way Jack was her man, for he neither thought, spoke,
dressed, nor acted like other mortals. He was for your bold strokes. He
railed at fops, though he was himself the most affected in the world;
instead of the common fashion, he would visit his mistress in a
mourning-cloak, band, short cuffs, and a peaked beard. He invented a way
of coming into a room backwards, which he said showed more humility and
less affectation. Where other people stood, he sat; where they sat, he
stood; when he went to Court, he used to kick away the state, and sit
down by his prince cheek by jowl. "Confound these states," says he,
"they are a modern invention." When he spoke to his prince, he always
turned his back upon him. If he was advised to fast for his health, he
would eat roast beef; if he was allowed a more plentiful diet, then
he would be sure that day to live upon water-gruel; he would cry at a
wedding, laugh and make jests at a funeral.
He was no less singular in his opinions. You would have burst your sides
to hear him talk of politics. "All government," says he, "is founded
upon the right distribution of punishments: decent executions keep
the world in awe; for that reason, the majority of mankind ought to be
hanged every year. For example, I suppose the magistrate ought to pass
an irreversible sentence upon all blue-eyed children from the cradle;
but that there may be some show of justice in this proceeding, these
children ought to be trained up by masters, appointed for that purpose,
to all sorts of villany, that they may deserve their fate, and the
execution of them may serve as an object of terror to the rest of
mankind."* As to the giving of pardons, he had this singular method:**
that when these wretches had the rope about their necks, it should be
inquired who believed they should be hanged, and who not? The first were
to be pardoned, the last hanged outright. Such as were once pardoned
were never to be hanged afterwards for any crime whatsoever. He had such
skill in physiognomy, that he would pronounce peremptorily upon a man's
face. "That fellow," says he, "do what he will, can't avoid hanging;
he has a hanging look." By the same art he would prognosticate a
principality to a scoundrel.
* Absolute predestination and reprobation.
** Saving Faith: a belief that one shall certainly be
saved.
He was no less particular in the choice of his studies; they were
generally bent towards exploded chimeras*--the perpetuum mobile, the
circular shot, philosopher's stone, silent gunpowder, making chains
for fleas, nets for flies, and instruments to unravel cobwebs and split
hairs.
* The learning of the Presbyterians.
Thus, I think, I have given a distinct account of the methods he
practised upon Peg. Her brother would now and then ask her, "What dost
thou see in that pragmatical coxcomb to make thee so in love with him?
He is a fit match for a tailor's or a shoemaker's daughter, but not for
you that are a gentlewoman?" "Fancy is free," quoth Peg; "I'll take my
own way, do you take yours. I do not care for your flaunting beaus, that
gang with their breasts open, and their sarks over their waistcoats,
that accost me with set speeches out of Sidney's 'Arcadia' or the
'Academy of Compliments.' Jack is a sober, grave young man; though he
has none of your studied harangues, his meaning is sincere. He has a
great regard to his father's will, and he that shows himself a good son
will make a good husband. Besides, I know he has the original deed of
conveyance to the Fortunate Islands; the others are counterfeits." There
is nothing so obstinate as a young lady in her amours; the more you
cross her, the worse she is.