ABSTRACT
My project, as I have said, in coming to London was, whenever it should be necessary, to turn the tables upon my pursuers, and to annoy them, instead of suffering myself to be annoyed by them. It had happened to me, in the mere exuberance of gaiety, when young, several times to have tried the flexibility of the lines of my countenance and of my organs of speech, in the way of imposing for a short time upon my familiar acquaintance, and causing them to mistake me for an entire stranger. I was endowed with considerable powers of mimicry, and could imitate with surprising accuracy the gait and carriage of another, so / that from the first I found myself in nearly all cases successful in these attempts. Having for as long as I thought proper deluded my companions, or even my superiors or my father, in this way, the jest was usually terminated by my abruptly throwing off my disguise; when the scene was wound up with a hearty laugh at the deception, accompanied with various compliments upon the adroitness with which I had kept up the artifice.
