“O Jemmy,” continued my friend, “it is for that inestimable Ass I am
now grieving! Yes, it was he whom I met with this morning; but give me
the history of your acquaintance; I am impatient to hear when and where
your friendship began.”
As well as my feelings would permit, I complied. Bob was all attention,
only interrupting me to express his approbation of the justice with
which I delineated the character of our mutual friend.
“My mother should have been his wife,” resumed Bobby. “I have heard
he was the most lively Ass imaginable, until disappointment somewhat
soured his temper. I owe him infinite obligations; forgetting the
injury he had sustained in my mother’s broken faith, he has ever
shewn me the greatest tenderness; and when my father deserted us,
by constantly making me his companion, attracted the notice of his
master, who eventually received me into his service. Fate removed me
from his protection, but I have never ceased to retain a just sense of
his virtues. But what are words,--or what will gratitude avail?--He
is doomed to incessant slavery! Alas! if his own strong mind were not
his best support how pitiable were his situation! As it is, I question
whether he would not reprobate that sensibility which leads us to
lament irremediable evils, rather than strive to bear up against them.”
You may be sure I listened to this admirable model of my esteemed old
friend with all the attention he deserved. Yet, such was my natural
love of inquiry, I could not help wishing to be informed respecting
those circumstances that had brought Balaam to London.
Bobby could give me no light on this subject, further, than that he now
resided at Hampstead.
In this instance, as in many that preceded it, I felt the disadvantage
we labour under in being ignorant of geography. I believe few animals
are more sagacious in finding their homes than Asses: but this is
a species of local sagacity that scarcely soars beyond instinct.
What am I saying?--Instinct is at once our limit and our bliss: did
we possess higher attributes, Nature, jealous of her rights, would
lead us to rebel, and counteract those separations to which we are
invariably doomed. But as vague wishes are confined to no particular
species of animal, I hope mine will meet indulgence; more especially
when it is remembered, that friendship is an active principle, “never
easy when a friend’s distressed,” bold in its designs, and however
well-intentioned, not always reasonable in its speculations.
Had I known how to find my way to Hampstead, and entertained no fear
of being stopped on the road--not by highwaymen nor footpads--but as
a strayed Ass, and perhaps put into the pound, I certainly should have
decamped that evening in spite of my broken knees: but I was a hired
slave, and was yet to endure my share of Mrs. Dawes’ tyranny.
There was a luxury however in talking of dear Balaam: Bobby promised
me, that if chance again brought them together, he would not fail to
convey my dutiful remembrances to the worthy old Ass.
It is surprising to think, with what different sentiments one regards
the same character at distinct periods of time. I who had presumed
to arraign the justice of Balaam--who had thought him severe if not
illiberal--I now saw him as he really was, a very superior Donkey.
His cautions were the result of observation--his warnings, invaluable
lights to those who had sense enough to heed them--and that peculiar
art with which he drew aside the veil that concealed follies which
escaped the notice of less sagacious Asses, was well calculated to
repress the simple credulity of the trusting, inexperienced Donkey. I
blush to think I ever breathed a censure against this venerable animal.