. Thackerayana;. 3o6 THA CKERA YANA. Of Flattery. * Flattery is the art of selling wind for a round sum of readymofiey. A sycophant blows up the mind of his unhappy patientinto a tympany, and then, like other physicians, receives a fee forhis poison. It is his business to instruct men to mistake them-selves at a great expense ; to shut their eyes, and then pay forbeing blind. Thus the end of excelling in any art or professionis to have that excellence known and admired. Sing-song Nero, an ancestor of Mr. Tom dUrfey, would, pro-bably, never have banished the sceptre and adopted the fiddle, butt
. Thackerayana;. 3o6 THA CKERA YANA. Of Flattery. * Flattery is the art of selling wind for a round sum of readymofiey. A sycophant blows up the mind of his unhappy patientinto a tympany, and then, like other physicians, receives a fee forhis poison. It is his business to instruct men to mistake them-selves at a great expense ; to shut their eyes, and then pay forbeing blind. Thus the end of excelling in any art or professionis to have that excellence known and admired. Sing-song Nero, an ancestor of Mr. Tom dUrfey, would, pro-bably, never have banished the sceptre and adopted the fiddle, butthat he found it much easier for his talents to scrape than togovern. In this reign, he that had a musical ear, or could twist acatgut, was made a man ; and the fiddlers ruled the Roman. empire by the singular merit of condescending to be viler thrum-mers than the emperor himself. He who at that time could butwonder greatly, and gape artfully at his Majestys royal skill incrowding, might be governor of a province, or Lord HighTreasurer, or what else he pleased. This imperial piper used to go the circuit, and call theprovinces together, to be refreshed with a tune upon the fiddle,and if they had the policy to smother a laugh, and raise anoutrageous clap, their taxes were paid, and they had whatever theyasked ; and so miserably was this monarch and madman bewitchedby himself and his sycophants, with the character of a victoriousfiddler, that when he was abandoned by God and man, and, as anenemy to mankind, sentenced to be whipped to death, he did not THE HUMOURIST1 307 grieve so much for the loss of his empire as the loss of his he had no mortal left to natter him, he nattered himself,and his last words were, Qualis Artifex pereo ! What a bravescraper is los
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