 dignity.«
    »With the women I had one general formulary: Sweet pretty lady, God bless
your ladyship, God bless your handsome face. This generally succeeded; but I
observed the uglier the woman was, the surer I was of success.«
    »It was a constant maxim among us, that the greater retinue any one
travelled with the less expectation we might promise ourselves from them; but
whenever we saw a vehicle with a single or no servant we imagined our booty
sure, and were seldom deceived.«
    »We observed great difference introduced by time and circumstance in the
same person; for instance, a losing gamester is sometimes generous, but from a
winner you will as easily obtain his soul as a single groat. A lawyer travelling
from his country seat to his clients at Rome, and a physician going to visit a
patient, were always worth asking; but the same on their return were (according
to our cant phrase) untouchable.«
    »The most general, and indeed the truest, maxim among us was, that those who
possessed the least were always the readiest to give. The chief art of a
beggar-man is, therefore, to discern the rich from the poor, which, though it be
only distinguishing substance from shadow, is by no means attainable without a
pretty good capacity and a vast degree of attention; for these two are eternally
industrious in endeavouring to counterfeit each other. In this deceit the poor
man is more heartily in earnest to deceive you than the rich, who, amidst all
the emblems of poverty which he puts on, still permits some mark of his wealth
to strike the eye. Thus, while his apparel is not worth a groat, his finger
wears a ring of value, or his pocket a gold watch. In a word, he seems rather to
affect poverty to insult than impose on you. Now the poor man, on the contrary,
is very sincere in his desire of passing for rich; but the eagerness of this
desire hurries him to over-act his part, and he betrays himself as one who is
drunk by his overacted sobriety. Thus, instead of being attended by one servant
well mounted, he will have two; and, not being able to purchase or maintain a
second horse of value, one of his servants at least is mounted on a hired
rascallion. He is not contented to go plain and neat in his cloathes; he
therefore claps on some tawdry ornament, and what he adds to the fineness of his
vestment he detracts from the fineness of his linnen. Without descending into
more minute particulars
