Chap. I Of the Wonderful Transmigration of Jack Idle Into the Body of an Ass
One morning after breakfast I took a walk into the fields with my seven dear children; which I did, not only for the benefit of their health, but as a reward for their good behaviour. They always obey me and their affectionate mother with the utmost cheerfulness; and I, in return, am always ready to indulge them as far as my duty and their interest will permit. When we had travelled about three miles from the city, where Divine Providence has fixed our abode, we came to a range of little tenements, or I should rather have called them sheds, over the midst of which (and it was likewise the largest) was fixed a board, on which was written in lofty capitals WAL*KINBEHOL*DANDLE*ARN,1 which signifies, Walk in, behold, and learn. While I was musing upon this strange inscription, and wondering what curiosities there could be in such contemptible little huts, the door of the middlemost was suddenly opened by a Bramin, who with the greatest politeness and affability, desired us to walk in, assuring me, that notwithstanding the mean appearance of his little tenements, there were several things to be seen in them, which might contribute to the entertainment and instruction of my pretty fellow travellers. “I am, said he, as you may perceive by my habit, a Bramin, and my name is Wiseman. All the time I can spare from the worship of my Maker, and the contemplation of that astonishing wisdom and beneficence which he has displayed in his works of creation and providence, I cheerfully devote to the service of my fellow mortals, and particularly of the younger and unexperienced part of them. The most valuable service I can render them is to conduct them into the paths of virtue and discretion. For this purpose, having been gifted with the faculty of distinguishing those animals which are now animated by the souls of such human beings as formerly degraded themselves to a level with the unthinking brutes, I have taken the pains to provide a collection of beasts, birds, &c. most of which are inhabited by the souls of some naughty masters or misses, who died in the neighbourhood, and it is possible were not unknown to your little companions. It was a proverb among the ancient Bramins, that Example is more powerful than precept, and it is the common language of mankind to this day, I understand what I hear, but I believe what I see. It would not be amiss therefore, if you were to accompany the young gentlemen and ladies into my little appartments, that they may be eye witnesses to the mortifying consequences of an ill spent and vicious life, even to those who have not arrived at the age of manhood.”
We accepted the offer with the utmost gratitude, and eagerly inquired what we had to pay for admittance. But the good Bramin assured us, that he never made a traffick of the little wisdom he had to communicate, and that the most acceptable recompense we could make him, was, to bestow what we could prudently spare upon such real objects of charity as might afterwards fall in our way:—“For mercy and benevolence, said he, are the darling attributes of heaven, and those who are most distinguished for the practice of them, bear the nearest resemblance to their Maker, and will therefore receive the largest portion of his favour both in this world, and in that which is to come.”
The first room we were conducted into was the habitation of a little ass, who, as soon as we entered the place, began to bray, and kick up his heels, at a most violent rate; but, upon the appearance of Mr. Wiseman (which I have before observed was the Bramin’s name) he thought proper to compose himself, and stood as quiet as a lamb.—“This stubborn little beast said our kind conductor, is now animated by the soul of the late master Idle. In his life-time he possessed all the bad properties of the animal you see before you; so that, to speak the truth, he now appears in his proper shape. His rough coat of hair is a very suitable emblem of the ruggedness of his disposition; and his long and clumsy ears not only denotes his stupidity, but, as they afford a very secure and convenient hold to any one who has occasion to catch him when he runs loose in the fields, they sufficiently intimate that he was always open to the ill advice of his play-fellows. If the meanest and most dirty boy in the neighbourhood was in want of a companion, or rather a tool, to assist him in his mischievous pranks, he had nothing to do but to make his application to Jack Idle; for foolish Jack (as they truly called him) was at the beck of every mischievous rogue; and when the mischief was done, he was always left, like a stupid ass as he was, to bear the burden of it. His father had money; and Jack’s great pride was to be complimented by his raggamuffin companions as the cook of the game. Once (I remember it perfectly well) three bargemen’s boys having a violent inclination to plunder a pippin tree, which was the property of farmer Crusty, they gave master Jacky such a tempting account of the wish’d for prize, and held forth so liberally in praise of his courage and ingenuity, that they prevailed upon him to be not only a party, but the commander in chief in this hopeful enterprize. A house and a tree with a man standing under the treeBut, as such adventures generally terminate in the most mortifying disappointment, the young plunderers were discovered by the farmer before they had gathered half their booty. The three tarpaulins being at the bottom of the tree made their escape without much difficulty; but Jack, who, to support the dignity of his new command, had ascended almost to the top, was unfortunately taken prisoner. The consequence was, that his father (who had to deal with a wretch who was as crusty by nature as he was by name) after being obliged to pay ten times the value of the fruit, conducted his son to Mr. Sharp, the gentleman who had the trouble of his education, from whom he received a severe flogging in the presence of all his school fellows, as a very suitable reward of his stupid ambition. From this account of him you will naturally conclude that he was no great friend to learning; and, indeed, so remarkable was his aversion to the useful arts of reading and writing, that his greatest improvement amounted only to an indifferent knowledge of the alphabet, and the poor accomplishment of being just able to scrawl his own name in characters which were scarcely legible. He was equally distinguished for his speed and fidelity when his parents sent him on an errand; for he could hardly make shift to saunter a mile in an hour, and when he arrived at the place of his destination, he usually forgot three fourths of his message, and endeavoured to supply the defect by some blundering tale of his own invention. He was once dispatched by his father, in great haste, to a gentleman who lived not a quarter of a mile off, to request the favour of his company, in half an hour’s time, to settle matters with a grazer, of whom they had purchased several head of cattle; when Jack arrived at the gentleman’s house, which he actually did in the short space of an hour and a half, he rubbed his eyes, and scratched his head, and informed him that his father wanted him sadly, and that he must come directly to speak with the brazier, who, he said, had waited for him above two hours. It was very happy for his parents (whether they thought so or not) that Jack’s sudden exit out of the world, in the thirteenth year of his age, effectually prevented him from bringing any material disgrace upon his family; which he certainly would have done, if he had lived to be his own master. The occasion of his death was as follows:—One morning, instead of making the best of his way to school, (which he was constantly ordered to do) happening very luckily to be overtaken by Tom Sharper, and Dick Lackwit, they prudently agreed to avoid the intolerable drudgery of the hornbook, by playing truant and indulging themselves in the profitable diversions of sitting all day on the bank of a lonesome brook to fish for minows; they had pretty good sport, as they called it, for the first hour; but then Mr. Sharper’s line happening to be entangled among some large weeds, from which he could not disengage it as he stood upon the brink; and as he was naturally too great an adept in the science of self preservation, to expose himself to danger, when he could persuade another to supply his place; he requested the favour of master Idle to ascend a sloping tree which stood upon the bank, and from thence to descend gradually upon a hanging branch, the small end of which almost touched his line. Poor Jack was somewhat unwilling to venture upon the experiment; but a little more persuasion, which was supported by a few surly menaces, soon vanquished every objection. He accordingly ascended the tree; but when he attempted to seat himself upon the hanging branch the small twigs, upon which he stupidly fastened his hold for that purpose, suddenly gave way, and down he plunged into the middle of the brook, where, after many eager and ineffectual A man, holding a staff, standing in the woods struggles to recover the bank, he sunk to the bottom, and rose no more. The last words he spoke were, Oh! my dear father! my dear mother! I wish I had—He meant I suppose, that he wished he had followed their good advice; but the water, which ran very fast into his mouth, suddenly stopped his speech, and nothing more was heard but a faint bubbling in his throat, and two or three desperate plunges at the bottom of the water, to preserve that life which fell a melancholy sacrifice to his own folly and disobedience!—One would think that such a shocking catastrophe would be sufficient to subdue ten times the stubbornness and stupidity for which master Idle was so remarkable: But as we are too apt to forget the eager promises, and laugh at the self condemning reflections, which we have made in the hour of distress, I need not mention it as a prodigy, that the soul by which this little beast is animated, is still infected with the same vicious disposition, which disgraced and punished it, when it occupied the body of Jack Idle.”
To convince us of the truth of what he said, the good Bramin addressed himself to the ass before us, and assured him that if he was sincerely inclined to behave as he ought to do, and forsake the follies he had been guilty of in his former state of existence, he should again have the honour to ascend to the rank of human beings. But the stubborn little animal (who perfectly understood what he said) first leered at him with the most stupid resentment in the world, and then fell a braying and kicking with greater violence than when we first entered the room. “Soho! said Mr. Wiseman, is that your manners, my boy;”—and then giving him two or three hearty strokes, “well, well, said he, if this is all the return I am to have for my generous care of you, I will certainly sell you to the first sandman I see, who will bestow upon you plenty of drubbing, plenty of fasting, and (what you will relish the worst of all) a never failing plenty of work.”
Notes
1 The captain informs that this inscription is in the language of the ancient Bramins.