to all the butler's children; to sing when I was bid; to be never out of humour; always to be humble, and, if I could, to be happy.
"In this honourable post, however, I was not without a rival. A captain of marines, who seemed formed for the place by nature, opposed me in my patron's affections. His mother had been laundress to a man of quality, and thus he early acquired a taste for pimping and pedigree. As this gentleman made it the study of his life to be acquainted with lords, though he was dismissed from several for his stupidity; yet he found many of them who permitted his assiduities, being as dull as himself. As flattery was his trade, he practised it with the easiest address imaginable; but it came aukward and stiff from me; and as every day my patron's desire of flattery encreased, so every hour being better acquainted with his defects, I became more unwilling to give"it.
