When we had dined, Belmont began to enquire concerning my prospects and affairs.
"I expect," said he, "you will be less communicative and open hearted, now, than you formerly were. You have discovered, what I never attempted to conceal, that my present dependence is on the exercise of talents which your gravity despises: especially since they have laid you under contribution. This misfortune however, had you possessed them, despicable as they are, you would have escaped."
"Yes: just as the man, who hanged himself last night, escaped a head-ache this morning. I will own to you I cannot take the pleasure in your company, or think of you with that friendship, which I formerly felt: for, though I find your conversation no less animating, like strong liquors, it leaves an unwholesome heat behind.
"However, I have no objection to inform you that fortune has given me a momentary respite from persecution. How soon she may think proper to stretch me on the rack again is more than I can foresee: though I greatly suspect her of cruelty and caprice. She seems at present to be in one of her best humours; and has given me a kind of promise to make me one of the sage legislators of this happy land."
"What do you mean?"
"That I shall be a member of the new parliament."
Belmont burst into a violent fit of laughter. At first, I was at a loss to conjecture why; and especially why it should be so long, and so unaffected: but I soon learned it was a burst of triumph, which he could not restrain.
"I congratulate you, Mr. Trevor," said he, with a momentary gravity, "on your n.o.ble and moral pursuits!--The lecture you have been reading, as well as those I have formerly heard you read, now come upon me with invincible force!--There is no resisting precept thus exemplified by practice!--How loud, how lofty, how sovereign, is the contempt in which you hold hypocrisy!--How severe will the laws be that you will enact, against petty depredators!--I foresee you will hang, not only those that handle a card, or a dice-box, but, those that make them.--Then what honours, what rewards, what triumphs, will you decree to your own wholesale marauders! your great captains; chosen, empowered and paid by yourself and sages no less moral and disinterested!--With what gusto will you send him to swing who commits a single robbery: and with what sublime oratory will you exalt the prowess of the man who has plundered, starved, and exterminated nations--"A Daniel come to judgment! Oh wise young judge, how do I honor thee!"
I remained speechless, a few moments; and entirely disconcerted. I was irritated; though I knew not precisely at what. I attempted to answer; but was so confused that I talked absolute nonsense.
After some time, however, I recollected that my purpose in going into parliament was to counteract all these abuses. I then recovered my faculties, and urged this plea very emphatically.
Still the moral dignity, and virtue, of the honourable house I was about to enter, dwelt with such force on the imagination of Belmont that I could get no reply from him: except sarcasms, such as those I have repeated, with the same intervening fits of laughter as the images suggested themselves to his mind.
And here, lest the reader himself should be misled like Belmont, I must remark that no mistake is more common, and I believe none more pernicious, than that of imagining that, because man has not attained absolute and perfect virtue, the very existence of virtue is doubtful.
Hence it happens that he, who in any manner partic.i.p.ates in the vices of a nation, or a body of men, is reproached as if loaded with the whole guilt.
Hence likewise, because men without exception are more or less tainted with error, all pretensions to superior moral principles are laughed at, as false and ridiculous.
This is the doctrine at least which the people who most offend these principles are the most zealous in propagating. Belmont had no refuge against self-reproach, but in cherishing such trains of thought.
That the vices which are the most despised in society instead of being the most despicable are virtues, if compared to actions that find honor and reward, is a truth too glaring to be denied. That the cant with which these master crimes are glossed over, and painted as just, expedient, ay and heroic actions, that this diabolical cant should be and is adopted by men even of the highest powers, is a fact that astonishes and confounds. It impels us continually to ask--Are they cowards? Are they hypocrites? Or is the world inhabited by none but lunatics? And that men even of such uncommon genius as Belmont should be entangled, and bewildered, by the destructive incongruity of those who a.s.sume to themselves the highest wisdom, because they possess the highest stations in society, is a proof how inc.u.mbent it is on such as are convinced of these melancholy truths to declare them openly, undauntedly, and with a perseverance that no threats or terrors can shake.
When we had taken as much wine as Belmont could prevail on me to drink, and he was very urgent, he asked if I played Piquet?
I answered in the affirmative.
"You no doubt then play it well."
"I do not think it a game of much difficulty."
"It is my opinion I am your master at it."
"That may be."
"Though you do not think it is. Will you try?"
"What, with a man who avows he does not scruple to take every advantage?"
"Have you not eyes? Are you, a metaphysician, a wit, and a senator, so easily deceived?"
"A man may lose his temper; and with it his caution."
"So you think yourself able to instruct the world, but not to keep your mind calm and circ.u.mspect for half an hour?"
"Had I a sufficient motive, I should suppose I have strength enough for such an exertion."
"Then try. The exercise will be wholesome. Shew your skill and acuteness. Here is your twenty-pound bill: win and take it; or own that you have no confidence in yourself."
"I have that confidence which a.s.sures me I shall, one day or other, convince you that I understand the road to happiness better than yourself."
"Yet you are cursedly afraid of me. You scarcely can sit still. You blame your own rashness, in venturing to spend the afternoon with me: and now you would as soon handle burning coals as a pack of cards in my company."
"And what is it you find so omnipotent in yourself, that it should induce you to all this vapouring?"
"I tell you again, you dare not oppose your penetration to mine. You pretend to despise me, yet own I am your master. A child is not in more fear of the rod than you are of me."
He saw he had sufficiently piqued me, and rang the bell for cards.
They were brought: he shuffled, cut them, and continued to banter me.
"What card do you chuse?--The knave of hearts?--There it is!" [He shewed it, with a flirt of the cards, at the bottom of the pack.] His brother of diamonds?--Look! You have it!--Of spades?--Presto! It is here! You have three knaves on your side, you see. I will keep the fourth, and drive you out of the field--Come, for twenty?"
"I see your aim, and am devilishly tempted to shew you that you are not half so cunning as you think yourself."
"I know you are: but you dare not. You cannot shake off your fears.
The wit, the metaphysician, the young senator suspects he is only a half-fledged bird."
"Cut for deal, sir."
"Why, will you venture?--The nine."
The sudden recollection of Mr. Evelyn, the money I had received from him, the generous confidence he had reposed in me, and the guilt of daring to abuse that confidence, fortunately seized me with a kind of horror. I s.n.a.t.c.hed up the cards, dashed them in the fire, and in a moment recovering myself said--"You shall find, sir, that, whether I can or cannot master you, I can master myself"
"Come, you do not go out of this room without the _chance_ of losing twenty guineas for twenty."
"Done!" answered I, impetuously: which he in an instant echoed with Done! Done! and, again bursting into laughter, held out his hand and bade me pay my losings.
I immediately discovered, without his explanation, that he had entrapped me, by the equivocal sense of the word _chance_; and I drew out my purse to pay him, with a strong feeling of indignation that I should be so caught.
However, as it was not his intention to profit by so bald and barefaced a quirk, he only laughed; and exclaimed--"How much the young gentleman is his own master! But I will not pick your pocket. If at any time I should want twenty pounds, I shall have a fair claim to ask it as a loan."
"Would you but really act like a man of honour, there would be no need of such an artifice."
"Perhaps not, for the first time. But if my poor honor were starving, and could not repay its borrowings, I am afraid my honor would irrevocably be lost. I therefore prefer, since in either case lose it I must, to lose it and eat. But the birds are now beginning to flock together; and I must begone, to the pigeon-house: the rookery."
"I do not understand the terms."
"The plucking office: the crab and nick nest: the pip and bone quarry: the rafflearium: the trumpery: the blaspheming box: the elbow shaking shop: the wholesale ague and fever warehouse."
"In plain English, to an a.s.sembly of gamblers."