It is now too
late to flatter: This is no time for disguise. Pardon me therefore, my
dear and ever-honoured pupil, if I may seem to offend against those
minuter laws of etiquette, which were made only for common cases. At so
important a crisis it is necessary to be plain.
Your lordship is very cunning, but I never imagined that you were
remarkably wise. The talents you received at your birth, if we were to
speak with mathematical strictness, should rather be denominated knacks,
than abilities. They consist rather in a lucky dexterity of face, and a
happy conformation of limb, than in any very elevated capacities of the
intellect. Upon that score, my lord,--you know I am fond of comparisons,
and I think I have hit upon one in this case, that must be acknowledged
remarkably apposite. I have sometimes seen a ditch, the water of which,
though really shallow, has appeared to careless observers to be very
deep, for no other reason but because it was muddy. Believe me, my lord,
experienced and penetrating observers are not so to be taken in.
But, as I was saying, education is a temporary thing, and your
lordship's, however lasting and laborious, is at length brought to a
period. My lord, if it so pleases the sovereign disposer of all things,
I would be very well satisfied to remain in this sublunary state for
some years longer, if it were only that I might live to rejoice in the
exemplification of my precepts in the conduct of my pupil.
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