Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/332

 Thames, and not knowing how to swim, had like to have been drowned; when a gentleman, who stood by, jumped into the river and saved him. The man fell on his knees, was ready to adore him for thus delivering him, and said he would joyfully sacrifice the life he had saved at any time on his least command. The next day the gentleman met him again, and asked him how he did after his fright? When the man, instead of being any longer thankful for his safety, upbraided him for pulling him by the ear in such a manner that it had pained him ever since. Thus that trifling inconvenience, in twenty-four hours, had entirely swallowed up the remembrance that his life was owing to it. Just so doth the gentleman I am speaking of act by all the world. "He has the greatest aversion imaginable to see another in pain and uneasiness; and therefore, while any one is with him, he has not resolution enough to refuse them anything, be it ever so unreasonable. Importunity makes him uneasy, and therefore he cannot withstand it; but when they are absent from him, he gives himself no trouble what they suffer: let him not see it, and he cares not: he would not interrupt a moment of his own pleasure on any account whatever. He never considers what is right or wrong, but pursues the gratification of every inclination with the utmost vigour; and all the pains he takes is not in examining his actions either before or after he has done them, but in proving to himself that what he likes is best; and he has the art of doing this in such a manner that, while people are with him, it is very difficult to prevent being imposed on by his fallacious way of arguing. And yet, tell him a story of another's actions, and no one can judge better, only I think rather too rigidly; for, as he doth not feel their inclinations, he can see all their folly, and cannot find out any reason for their giving way to their passions.