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the lot and choice of their neighbours. Even to wonder how another man lives, wanting the things which you ap preciate in your own destiny, shows an absence of proper reflection, and would be as well avoided. No man can know what happiness there is in the condition of his fellow men, unless he put himself into the same situation. Then he is apt to find, that, in the sphere and caste where he formerly thought there was nothing but unmingled misery, there exist many unseen comforts and blessings, which redeem its outward aspect.

SELF-APPRECIATION.

THE self-appreciation of all men is perhaps pretty much alike: the grand difference lies in the power of concealing it. In one point of view, he whom the world calls the vain man is only the most candid, while the person denominated modest is only so far a hypocrite. Nevertheless, as the intrusion of our self-appreciation before the eyes of others is to them disagreeable, it must be considered as a violation of the convenience of our fellow-creatures, which, like all similar annoyances, they are entitled to resent; and as it at the same time betrays a want of self-command, or of knowledge of the world, on the part of those manifesting it, mankind are equally justified in characterising it as either a defect in character or in conduct. Whatever, therefore, be the comparative simplicity of intentions in the vain man, his fault is one which it is for his advantage to combat, and, if possible, suppress.

When any man conceives that he possesses some peculiar mental qualification which should bring him to distinction in life, let him exert that property in every feasible way for the end he has in view. All kinds of doings are tolerated in such a person: he may write upon the lostiest theme in the world, or attempt a scientific project, which,

if successful, would revolutionise the general affairs of mankind. One thing, however, he must not do: he must never breathe a word to a living creature, that could be interpreted into a confession of his own sense of superiority. To put forward the slightest verbal or written pretension to a merit which either has or has not yet been conceded by the voice of his fellow-creatures, shipwrecks him at once, by stamping him as a vain man." Nay, if he so much as receives a compliment in a way not perfectly modestif he treats it in the least as a matter of course, or as a thing which he thought that he had reason to expect—if he do not, in fact, express a perpetual wonder at the honours that come upon him, and appear, all the time he is writing and fighting for praise, to be unconscious of there being any such thing in the world, he is equally sure to get this condemning reputation. The world will allow him to be as great a dissembler as he pleases, but it will not allow him to show the most distant symptom of self-esteem, an expressive enough proof of the leniency with which mankind often treat real vices, while simple weaknesses are punished without mercy.

may.

It is a common remark, that modesty is always found in the same proportion as true greatness. And so it well When the literary society of Portsmouth came to pay their respects to Sir Walter Scott, then about to depart for Italy, and to make him an honorary member of their body, he expressed himself as oppressed with a compliment, to which "so humble an individual as he" had no pretension! Such, we have learned from one of the society, were nearly his exact words; and innumerable anecdotes of this eminent man could be adduced to the same effect. Now, with us the wonder would have been greater, if a man who received praise so abundantly and so readily had continued to appear externally covetous of it, or even in his heart received it with satisfaction. It was, in his case, water poured upon the drowned. The man

from whom, in reality, modesty of this kind is least to be

expected, is he, who, getting little spontaneous praise from his fellow-men, finds himself under the necessity of giving them a gentle hint now and then as to his pretensions, and thus ravishing what lie cannot get by fair means. Such a man has no acquired reputation to risk by his want of modesty, and thus he is deficient in one of the greatest checks. The backwardness of mankind makes him desperate, and seeing that he cannot be worse than he is, he hesitates not to tell them that he is at least no inconsiderable person in his own eyes. If such an individual, however, were suddenly to become really worthy of the admiration of his fellow-men, every step he advanced would be a pledge for his modesty, and he would at no time appear less aware of the existence of his laurels, than at the moment when they were blinding him with their luxuriance.

The strong and the feeble parts of human nature are so curiously mingled, that we sometimes find in one man the power to excel almost all others in a certain department of exertion, accompanied by an imbecility of character which causes him to seem even more vain and childish than the most unidea'd fop. All who have been much acquainted, for instance, with literary men, must have remarked, that, in some, the power of composing language seemed rather to arise from a disease in their minds, than from any superior organisation or innate genius. Vanity is an almost unfailing peculiarity in such persons; and if they do any good at all, to no other impulse or motive can it be traced. While these considerations call for our wonder, they should also make us humanely lenient towards the class of offenders whom we are pointing out to public notice. I may grant that the manifestation of self-esteem is an annoyance to others; yet I am inclined at the same time to suspect, that he who is most anxious for praise himself, is likely to be most fretted by seeing it thus self-applied in another. On no other principle does it appear to me explicable, that men visit this foible with so much reprobation and ridicule, while they will strain

every nerve, and scout every received moral maxim, in order to explain away the actual wickedness of some talented favourite, who perhaps despised them, and made them his tools. It is the part of a good spirit to regard this weakness with gentleness, as one which does no real harm to any one, while it is evidently a source of happiness to the individual in whom it is manifested. There are many points in human character more worthy of rebuke and more liable to reformation than this; and the pleasures of life are not so abundant as to enable us to spare even one so peculiarly founded on delusion.

PALLIATIONS.

"I could see through the soft appliances and easy palliations of some men."-KING CHARLES I.

PERHAPS no deliberate crime or error was ever yet committed by any man, without his having some excuse to make for it to himself, not only at the time, but for a long while after. The virtuous part of the public is very far wrong, if it supposes that the other portion acts in a mere spirit of recklessness, or in cool defiance of what it knows to be right. In reality, the wicked and the foolish conceive themselves to have just as good motives, and to be as much in the right abstractly, as the just and the wise. He who steals rather than work, convinces himself, in the first place, that no work is to be had; the robber upon a large scale always makes up for his assaults upon the rich, by being amazingly charitable to the poor. If any one commits a rash and cruel action, he persuades himself afterwards that he was in a passion at the time, and tries to nurse up his wrath, and keep it warm, that it may still appear to justify what he did. We are never, in short, deficient in excuses and palliatives for any offences except those committed by our neighbours; in considering these, we generally contrive to be remarkably candid.

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In the lesser affairs of life, we have exactly the same apologetic system. Bring me a glass of brandy," says one visitor of a coffeeroom, "for I am very cold.” Bring me the same, with water," cries another, "for I am very warm." Hardly any one has the honest hardihood of Foote, to call for the liquor “because I like it." No, we will not confess even to ourselves the genuine vicious or self-indulgent motive which lurks at the bottom of our hearts: we are always so very polite and fair-spoken within the court of our own conscience. It is only when we see other people going wrong, that our disinterested indignation finds a vent; in such cases, silence would be a crime, forbearance a participation of the offence. We must launch forth, if it were only to show how very far we are from countenancing such doings, how impossible it is that we should ever commit them ourselves.

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It is sometimes very amusing to observe how, when a man begins to wax a little wealthy, he also begins to convince himself of the necessity of certain luxuries. habits and maxims of a straitened home still perhaps cling to him, and, even though certain that he can well afford what he desires, yet such is the effect of his customary state of feeling, that he has to make almost every new indulgence appear to himself in some measure as only an expedient in economy, or at least as absolutely unavoidable. Say that for some time past he has ceased to complain of the exorbitant rents demanded for houses, which used for years to be often in his mouth, and begun to let forth some hints as to the unproductiveness of property, the difficulty of getting good tenants, and the length of plasterers' and painters' bills, that he has even begun to take a curious and unwonted interest in a certain neglected portion of the newspapers, where estates are advertised for sale, and ascertained from his physician that application to business in the evenings is likely to tell soon upon his health-say that he has reached this point: how delightfully, some fine afternoon, does the vision of a neat curricle, calculated to

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