The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 4 | Page 6

I believe very little force would be necessary; for who among them can
dread any change? Many of us indeed are wholly unqualified for any
but the most servile employments, and those perhaps would require the
care of a magistrate to hinder them from following the same practices
in another country; but others are only precluded by infamy from
reformation, and would gladly be delivered on any terms from the
necessity of guilt, and the tyranny of chance. No place but a populous
city, can afford opportunities for open prostitution; and where the eye
of justice can attend to individuals, those who cannot be made good
may be restrained from mischief. For my part, I should exult at the
privilege of banishment, and think myself happy in any region that
should restore me once again to honesty and peace.
I am, Sir, &c.
MISELLA.

No. 172. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1751
Saepe rogare soles, qualis sim, Prisce, futurus, Si fiam locuples, simque
repente potens. Quemquam poss putas mores narrare futuros? Dic mihi,
si tu leo, qualis eris?
MART. Lib. xii. Ep. 93.
Priseus, you've often ask'd me how I'd live, Should fate at once both
wealth and honour give. What soul his future conduct can foresee? Tell
me what sort of lion you would be. F. LEWIS.
NOTHING has been longer observed, than that a change of fortune
causes a change of manners; and that it is difficult to conjecture from
the conduct of him whom we see in a low condition, how he would act,
if wealth and power were put into his hands. But it is generally agreed,
that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation; and that the
powers of the mind, when they are unbound and expanded by the
sunshine of felicity, more frequently luxuriate into follies, than blossom
into goodness.
Many observations have concurred to establish this opinion, and it is
not likely soon to become obsolete, for want of new occasions to revive
it. The greater part of mankind are corrupt in every condition, and

differ in high and in low stations, only as they have more or fewer
opportunities of gratifying their desires, or as they are more or less
restrained by human censures. Many vitiate their principles in the
acquisition of riches; and who can wonder that what is gained by fraud
and extortion is enjoyed with tyranny and excess?
Yet I am willing to believe that the depravation of the mind by external
advantages, though certainly not uncommon, yet approaches not so
nearly to universality, as some have asserted in the bitterness of
resentness, or heat of declamation.
Whoever rises above those who once pleased themselves with equality,
will have many malevolent gazers at his eminence. To gain sooner than
others that which all pursue with the same ardour, and to which all
imagine themselves entitled, will for ever be a crime. When those who
started with us in the race of life, leave us so far behind, that we have
little hope to overtake them, we revenge our disappointment by
remarks on the arts of supplantation by which they gained the
advantage, or on the folly and arrogance with which they possess it. Of
them, whose rise we could not hinder, we solace ourselves by
prognosticating the fall.
It is impossible for human purity not to betray to an eye, thus sharpened
by malignity, some stains which lay concealed and unregarded, while
none thought it their interest to discover them; nor can the most
circumspect attention, or steady rectitude, escape blame from censors,
who have no inclination to approve. Riches therefore, perhaps, do not
so often produce crimes as incite accusers.
The common charge against those who rise above their original
condition, is that of pride. It is certain that success naturally confirms
us in a favourable opinion of our own abilities. Scarce any man is
willing to allot to accident, friendship, and a thousand causes, which
concur in every event without human contrivance or interposition, the
part which they may justly claim in his advancement. We rate ourselves
by our fortune rather than our virtues, and exorbitant claims are quickly
produced by imaginary merit. But captiousness and jealousy are
likewise easily offended, and to him who studiously looks for an
affront, every mode of behaviour will supply it; freedom will be
rudeness, and reserve sullenness; mirth will be negligence, and
seriousness formality; when he is received with ceremony, distance and

respect are inculcated; if he is treated with familiarity, he concludes
himself insulted by condescensions.
It must however be confessed, that as all sudden changes are dangerous,
a quick transition from poverty to abundance can seldom be made with
safety. He that has long lived within sight of pleasures which he could
not reach, will need more than common