Sailor nor slater would
have a chance with him there, standing on his head on a ledge of six
inches, five hundred feet above the level of the sea, without ever so
much as once tumbling down; or hanging at the same height from a bush by
the tail, to dry, or air, or sun himself, as if he were flower or fruit.
There he is, a monkey indeed; but you catch him young, clap a pair of
breeches on him, and an old red jacket, and oblige him to dance a
saraband on the stones of a street, or perch upon the shoulder of Bruin,
equally out of his natural element, which is a cave among the woods.
Here he is but the ape of a monkey. Now if we were to catch you young,
good subscriber or contributor, yourself, and put you into a cage to
crack nuts and pull ugly faces, although you might, from continued
practice, do both to perfection, at a shilling a-head for grown-up
ladies and gentlemen, and sixpence for children and servants, and even
at a lower rate after the collection had been some weeks in town, would
you not think it exceedingly hard to be judged of in that one of your
predicaments, not only individually, but nationally--that is, not only
as Ben Hoppus, your own name, but as John Bull, the name of the people
of which you are an incarcerated specimen? You would keep incessantly
crying out against this with angry vociferation, as a most unwarrantable
and unjust Test and Corporation Act.
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