wherein a roguish boy hath conveyed a farthing-candle, to the terror
of his Majesty's liege subjects. Therefore he made use of no other
expedient to light himself home, but was wont to say that a wise man
was his own lanthorn.

He would shut his eyes as he walked along the streets, and if he
happened to bounce his head against a post or fall into the kennel
(as he seldom missed either to do one or both), he would tell the
gibing apprentices who looked on that he submitted with entire
resignation, as to a trip or a blow of fate, with whom he found by
long experience how vain it was either to wrestle or to cuff, and
whoever durst undertake to do either would be sure to come off with
a swingeing fall or a bloody nose. "It was ordained," said he
{146b}, "some few days before the creation, that my nose and this
very post should have a rencounter, and therefore Providence thought
fit to send us both into the world in the same age, and to make us
countrymen and fellow-citizens. Now, had my eyes been open, it is
very likely the business might have been a great deal worse, for how
many a confounded slip is daily got by man with all his foresight
about him. Besides, the eyes of the understanding see best when
those of the senses are out of the way, and therefore blind men are
observed to tread their steps with much more caution, and conduct,
and judgment than those who rely with too much confidence upon the
virtue of the visual nerve, which every little accident shakes out
of order, and a drop or a film can wholly disconcert; like a
lanthorn among a pack of roaring bullies when they scour the
streets, exposing its owner and itself to outward kicks and buffets,
which both might have escaped if the vanity of appearing would have
suffered them to walk in the dark. But further, if we examine the
conduct of these boasted lights, it will prove yet a great deal