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562. Affectation; Hypocrisy
"Affectation is to be always distinguished from hypocrisy, as
being the art of counterfeiting those qualities which we might,
with 
innocence and safety, be known to
want. Thus the man, who, to carry on any fraud, or to conceal
any crime, pretends to rigours of devotion and exactness of life,
is guilty of hypocrisy; and his guilt is greater, as the end,
for which he puts on the false appearance, is more pernicious.
But he that, with an awkward dress, and unpleasing countenance,
boasts of the conquests made by him among the ladies, and counts
over the thousands which he might have possessed if he would have
submitted to the yoke of matrimony, is chargeable only with
affectation. Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of
villainy,affectation part of the chosen trappings of folly; the
one completes a villain, the other only finishes a fop. Contempt
is the proper punishment of affectation, and detestation the just
consequence of hypocrisy."
Johnson: Rambler #20 (May 26, 1750)
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563.
Affectation
"The man of affectation may, perhaps, be reclaimed, by finding
how little he is likely to gain by perpetual constraint and
incessant vigilance, and how much more securely he might make his
way to esteem, by cultivating real, than by displaying
counterfeit qualities."
Johnson: Rambler #20 (May 26, 1750)
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564. Affectation
"Every thing future is to be estimated by a wise man, in
proportion to the probability of attaining it, and its value when
attained; and neither of these considerations will much
contribute to the encouragement of affectation. For, if the
pinnacles of fame be, at best, slippery, how unsteady must his
footing be who stands upon pinnacles without foundation!"
Johnson: Rambler #20 (May 26, 1750)
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565. Affectation
"He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to
the winds; but he that endeavours after it by false merit, has
to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his
vessel. Though he should happen to keep above water for a time,
by the help of a soft breeze and a calm sea, at the first gust he
must inevitably founder, with this melancholy reflection, that if
he would have been content with his natural station, he might
have escaped his calamity. Affectation may possibly succeed for
a time, and a man may, by great attention, persuade others that
he really has the qualities which he presumes to boast; but the
hour will come when he should exert them, and then whatever he
enjoyed in praise, he must suffer in reproach."
Johnson: Rambler #20 (May 26, 1750)
Link
566. Affectation
"The state of the possessor of humble virtues, to the affector of
great excellences, is that of a small cottage of stone to the
palace raised with ice by the empress of Russia; it was for a
time splendid and luminous, but the first sunshine melted it to
nothing."
Johnson: Rambler #20 (May 26, 1750)
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1,840. Affectation; Quality
"Whatever is useful or honourable will be desired by many who can
never obtain it; and that which cannot be obtained when it is
desired, artifice or folly will be diligent to counterfeit. Those
to whom fortune has denied gold and diamonds decorate themselves
with stones and metals, which have something of the show, but
little of the value; and every moral excellence or intellectual
faculty has some vice or folly which imitates its
appearance."
Johnson: Idler #92 (January 19, 1760)
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