The More You Saw Of Alick, The More, It Must Be Owned, You Learned
To Despise Him.
His natural talents were of no use either to
himself or others; for his character had degenerated like his face,
and become pulpy and pretentious.
Even his power of persuasion,
which was certainly very surprising, stood in some danger of being
lost or neutralised by over-confidence. He lied in an aggressive,
brazen manner, like a pert criminal in the dock; and he was so vain
of his own cleverness that he could not refrain from boasting, ten
minutes after, of the very trick by which he had deceived you.
'Why, now I have more money than when I came on board,' he said one
night, exhibiting a sixpence, 'and yet I stood myself a bottle of
beer before I went to bed yesterday. And as for tobacco, I have
fifteen sticks of it.' That was fairly successful indeed; yet a
man of his superiority, and with a less obtrusive policy, might,
who knows? have got the length of half a crown. A man who prides
himself upon persuasion should learn the persuasive faculty of
silence, above all as to his own misdeeds. It is only in the farce
and for dramatic purposes that Scapin enlarges on his peculiar
talents to the world at large.
Scapin is perhaps a good name for this clever, unfortunate Alick;
for at the bottom of all his misconduct there was a guiding sense
of humour that moved you to forgive him.
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