Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/222

 my case, indeed, there was something peculiarly unhappy; for my loss of reputation gave my relations some excuse for their barbarity: though I am confident they would have acted near the same part without it. Men think our circumstances give them a liberty to shock our ears with proposals ever so dishonourable; and I am afraid there are women who do not feel much uneasiness at seeing any one, who is used to be upon a level with themselves, thrown greatly below them. If we were to attempt getting our living by any trade, people in that station would think we were endeavouring to take their bread out of their mouths, and combine together against us; saying, we most certainly deserve our distress, or our great relations would support us. Men in very high life are taken up with such various cares that, were they ever so good-natured, they cannot hearken to everybody's complaint who applies to them for relief. And the lower sort of people use a person who was born in a higher station, and is thrown amongst them by any misfortune, just as I have seen cows in a field use one another; for, if by accident any of them fall into a ditch, the rest all kick against them, and endeavour to keep them down, that they may not get out again. They will not suffer us to be equal with them, and get our bread as they do; if we cannot be above them, they will have the pleasure of casting us down infinitely below them. In short, persons who are so unfortunate as to be in this situation are in a world full of people, and yet are as solitary as if they were in the wildest desert; nobody will allow them to be of their rank, nor admit them into their community. They see all the blessings which Nature deals out with such a lavish hand to all her creatures, without finding any possibility of sharing the least part of them. This, sir, was my miserable till your bounty relieved me."