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From This World to the Next-Part16_HENRY FIELDING(1707-1754)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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who bad survived their wounds, and had remained in the Isle of

Ely, were all of our nation who went, the rest of his army being



all composed of English. In a skirmish near the town of Mans my

leg was broke and so shattered that it was forced to be cut off.



"I was now disabled from serving longer in the army; and

accordingly, being discharged from the service, I retired to the



place of my nativity, where, in extremepoverty, and frequent bad

health from the many wounds I had received, I dragged on a



miserable life to the age of sixty- three; my only pleasure being

to recount the feats of my youth, in which narratives I generally



exceeded the truth.

"It would be tedious and unpleasant to recount to you the several



miseries I suffered after my return to Caen; let it suffice, they

were so terrible that they induced Minos to compassionate me,



and, notwithstanding the barbarities I had been guilty of in

Northumberland, to suffer me to go once more back to earth."



CHAPTER XXII

What happened to Julian in the person of a tailor.



"Fortune now stationed me in a character which the ingratitude of

mankind hath put them on ridiculing, though they owe to it not



only a relief from the inclemencies of cold, to which they would

otherwise be exposed, but likewise a considerablesatisfaction of



their vanity. The character I mean was that of a tailor; which,

if we consider it with due attention, must be confessed to have



in it great dignity and importance. For, in reality, who

constitutes the different degrees between men but the tailor? the



prince indeed gives the title, but it is the tailor who makes the

man. To his labors are owing the respect of crowds, and the awe



which great men inspire into their beholders, though these are

too often unjustly attributed to other motives. Lastly, the



admiration of the fair is most commonly to be placed to his

account.



"I was just set up in my trade when I made three suits of fine

clothes for king Stephen's coronation. I question whether the



person who wears the rich coat hath so much pleasure and vanity

in being admired in it, as we tailors have from that admiration;



and perhaps a philosopher would say he is not so well entitled to

it. I bustled on the day of the ceremony through the crowd, and



it was with incredible delight I heard several say, as my clothes

walked by, 'Bless me, was ever anything so fine as the earl of



Devonshire? Sure he and Sir Hugh Bigot are the two best dressed

men I ever saw.' Now both those suits were of my making.



"There would indeed be infinite pleasure in working for the

courtiers, as they are generally genteel men, and show one's



clothes to the best advantage, was it not for one small

discouragement; this is, that they never pay. I solemnly



protest, though I lost almost as much by the court in my life as

I got by the city, I never carried a suit into the latter with



half the satisfaction which I have done to the former; though

from that I was certain of ready money, and from this almost as



certain of no money at all.

"Courtiers may, however, be divided into two sorts, very



essentially different from each other; into those who never

intend to pay for their clothes; and those who do intend to pay



for them, but never happen to be able. Of the latter sort are

many of those young gentlemen whom we equip out for the army, and



who are, unhappily for us, cut off before they arrive at

preferment. This is the reason that tailors, in time of war, are



mistaken for politicians by their inquisitiveness into the event

of battles, one campaign very often proving the ruin of



half-a-dozen of us. I am sure I had frequent reason to curse

that fatal battle of Cardigan, where the Welsh defeated some of



king Stephen's best troops, and where many a good suit of mine

unpaid for, fell to the ground.



"The gentlemen of this honorable calling have fared much better




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