He is guarded with crowds, and shackled with formalities. The half
hat, the whole hat, the half smile, the whole smile, the nod, the
embrace, the positive parting with a little bow, the comparative at
the middle of the room, the superlative at the door; and if the
person be Pan huper sebastos, there's a Huper superlative ceremony
then of conducting him to the bottom of the stairs, or to the very
gate: as if there were such rules set to these Leviathans as are to
the sea, "Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further." Perditur haec
inter misero Lux. Thus wretchedly the precious day is lost.
How many impertinent letters and visits must he receive, and
sometimes answer both too as impertinently? He never sets his foot
beyond his threshold, unless, like a funeral, he hath a train to
follow him, as if, like the dead corpse, he could not stir till the
bearers were all ready. "My life," says Horace, speaking to one of
these magnificos, "is a great deal more easy and commodious than
thine, in that I can go into the market and cheapen what I please
without being wondered at; and take my horse and ride as far as
Tarentum without being missed.
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