1831.] Aphorisms on Man. 487 



to pass off an artificial disguise as himself. We may safely extend the 

 old maxim, and say that it is the tailor that makes both the gentleman 

 and the man. Fine feathers make fine birds this lie is the motto of 

 the human mind. Dress a fellow in sheepskin, and he is a clown 

 dress him in scarlet, and he is a gentleman. It is then the clothes that 

 make all the difference ; and the moral agent is simply the lay-figure 

 to hang them on. Man, in short, is the only creature in the known 

 world, with whom appearances pass for realities, words for things ; or 

 that has the wit to find out his own defects, and the impudence and 

 hypocrisy, by merely concealing them, to persuade himself and others 

 that he has them not. Teniers's monkeys, habited like monks, may be 

 thought a satire on human nature alas ! it is a piece of natural history. 

 The monks are the larger and more solemn species, to be sure. Swift 

 has taken a good bird's-eye view of man's nature, by abstracting the 

 habitual notions of size, and looking at it in great or in little : would that 

 some one had the boldness and the art to do a similar service, ,by strip- 

 ping off the coat from his back, the vizor from his thoughts, or by 

 dressing up some other creature in similar mummery ! It is not his 

 body alone that he tampers with, and metamorphoses so successfully ; 

 he tricks out his mind and soul in borrowed finery, and in the admired 

 costume of gravity and imposture. If he has a desire to commit a base 

 or cruel action without remorse and with the applause of the spectators, 

 he has only to throw the cloak of religion over it, and invoke Heaven to 

 set its seal on a massacre or a robbery. At one time dirt, at another 

 indecency, at another rapine, at a fourth rancorous malignity, is decked 

 out and accredited in the garb of sanctity. The instant there is a flaw, a 

 " damned spot" to be concealed, it is glossed over with a doubtful name. 

 Again, we dress up our enemies in nicknames, and they march to the 

 stake as assuredly as in san Benitos. The words Heretic or Papist, Jew or 

 Infidel, labelled on those who differ from us, stand us in lieu of sense or 

 decency. If a man be mean, he sets up for economy ; if selfish, he pre- 

 tends to be prudent ; if harsh, firm ; and so on. What enormities, what 

 follies are not undertaken for the love of glory ? and the worst of all, 

 are said to be for the glory of God ! Strange, that a reptile should wish 

 to be thought an angel ; or that he should not be content to writhe and 

 grovel in his native earth, without aspiring to the skies ! It is from the 

 love of dress and finery. He is the chimney-sweeper on May-day all the 

 year round: the soot peeps through the rags and tinsel, and all the 

 flowers of sentiment ! 



LXV. 



The meaning of all which is, that man is the only hypocrite in the 

 creation; or that he is composed of two natures, the ideal and the 

 physical, the one of which he is always trying to keep a secret from the 

 Other. He is the Centaur not fabulous. 



LXVI. 



A person who is full of secrets is a knave or a fool, or both. 



