Is one whose want of money and want of wit have engaged him beyond his
abilities. The little knowledge he has of himself, being suitable to the
little he has in his profession, has made him believe himself fit for
it. This double ignorance has made him set a value upon himself, as he
that wants a great deal appears in a better condition than he that wants
a little. This renders him confident and fit for any undertaking, and
sometimes (such is the concurrent ignorance of the world) he prospers in
it, but oftener miscarries and becomes ridiculous; yet this advantage he
has, that as nothing can make him see his error, so nothing can
discourage him that way, for he is fortified with his ignorance, as
barren and rocky places are by their situation, and he will rather
believe that all men want judgment than himself. For, as no man is
pleased that has an ill opinion of himself, Nature, that finds out
remedies herself, and his own ease, render him insensible of his
defects. From hence he grows impudent; for, as men judge by comparison,
he knows as little what it is to be defective as what it is to be
excellent. Nothing renders men modest but a just knowledge how to
compare themselves with others; and where that is wanting impudence
supplies the place of it, for there is no vacuum in the minds of men,
and commonly, like other things in Nature, they swell more with
rarefaction than condensation. The more men know of the world, the worse
opinion they have of it; and the more they understand of truth, they are
better acquainted with the difficulties of it, and consequently are the
less confident in their assertions, especially in matters of
probability, which commonly is squint-eyed and looks nine ways at once.
It is the office of a just judge to hear both parties, and he that
considers but the one side of things can never make a just judgment,
though he may by chance a true one. Impudence is the bastard of
ignorance, not only unlawfully but incestuously begotten by a man upon
his own understanding, and laid by himself at his own door, a monster of
unnatural production; for shame is as much the propriety of human
nature, though overseen by the philosophers, and perhaps more than
reason, laughing, or looking asquint, by which they distinguish man from
beasts; and the less men have of it the nearer they approach to the
nature of brutes. Modesty is but a noble jealousy of honour, and
impudence the prostitution of it; for he whose face is proof against
infamy must be as little sensible of glory. His forehead, like a
voluntary cuckold's, is by his horns made proof against a blush. Nature
made man barefaced, and civil custom has preserved him so; but he that's
impudent does wear a vizard more ugly and deformed than highway thieves
disguise themselves with. Shame is the tender moral conscience of good
men. When there is a crack in the skull, Nature herself, with a tough
horny callous repairs the breach; so a flawed intellect is with a brawny
callous face supplied. The face is the dial of the mind; and where they
do not go together, 'tis a sign that one or both are out of order. He
that is impudent is like a merchant that trades upon his credit without
a stock, and if his debts were known would break immediately. The inside
of his head is like the outside, and his peruke as naturally of his own
growth as his wit. He passes in the world like a piece of counterfeit
coin, looks well enough until he is rubbed and worn with use, and then
his copper complexion begins to appear, and nobody will take him but by
owl-light.