path to fame." And Lord Bacon observes, "In fame of learning, the flight will be slow without some feathers of ostentation." Pindar, Hesiod, Plautus, Horace, Socrates, Seneca, Lucretius, Lucan, Martial, Galen, and Cicero, were ostentatious and ambitious. The last, when he obtained the object of his wishes the consulship-exclaimed in the fulness of his joy, "O fortunatam natam, me consule Romam!" Without doubt, many of these eminent persons were too much moved by the love of honour; but it enabled them to do what the world, even in the present day, admire.

Pride, then, consists of, or produces, an excess of ostentation, unreasonable ambition, arrogance, contemptuousness, insolence, revenge, haughtiness, and gloom. It displeases others, and makes the possessor unhappy. It unfits a person for the consistent and praiseworthy performance of his duty, and lessens the amount of his earthly happiness. Humility produces cheerfulness, kindness, and forgiveness; it improves the health, cheers the heart, and gladdens the countenance. The humble person is sometimes hid from the observation of men, but he is especially regarded by the approval of the Most High; the influence of Divine favour rests upon him; he possesses a permanence of enjoyment; for, as Patrick elegantly says, "Though the dews of Divine grace fall every where, yet they lie. longest in the shade." Pride is intended to increase dignity, but it occasions mortification and degradation: humility apparently depresses, but it greatly elevates and ennobles the possessor.

CHAP. XIV.

ON MODESTY AND BOLDNESS.

MODESTY is timidity; but timidity operates in two ways: when it prevents a person from violating the dictates of reason and virtue, it may be termed modesty; but when it arises from a disordered body, with weakened nerves and a gloomy mind, it constitutes weakness and bashfulness. Boldness is firmness; but firmness may exist in a good cause or a bad one. When boldness enables a person to perform his duty, -being unchecked by fear or notions of difficulty, — it is fortitude; but when it arises from strong nerves, with an uncultivated mind,-when it operates without delicacy, and without the influence of reason and virtue,—it is assurance or impudence. Modesty, then, may be used in a good sense, and boldness in a bad one.

When the nervous system is vigorous, a person will probably become bold and indecorous, except he be regulated by education; and when it is weak, he will become bashful and diffident, except he be stimulated by the force of reason, and improved by an intercourse with society. Modesty is shown in children, when they are orderly in company; but if they be timid, dull, and incapable of conversing when they are requested to do so, they are bashful : if they be formal, talkative, and unruly, they are

bold. The future conduct depends in a great measure on the training in childhood: the two extremes, therefore, should be checked, and as much. freedom as may be consistent with propriety should be allowed.

Modesty is one of the most lovely ornaments of a female. It is more attractive than the most costly jewels or the most splendid apparel; but it must not be confounded with affectation and prudery. The affectedly modest thinks she cannot go too far; and thus she pretends to be disgusted with what would not affect another. The reason is, she attaches immodest thoughts to many actions and words, which another with a purer heart would never think of. Lucretia was not abashed at what would have occasioned fainting in many a prude. Another reason is, she has, perhaps, a character to gain: and thus she makes up in language what she is deficient of in conduct. Sometimes a scrupulosity in words, with an unusual delicacy and liability to take offence, is intended to compensate, in the reckoning of conscience, for a violation of those engagements which connect male and female in "holy matrimony." On the other hand, boldness and impudence in conduct and in language are the sign of a depraved heart and of loose morals.

Modesty is amiable; an endeavour to exhibit it is, therefore, a tribute to its merit: but boldness and indelicacy are unamiable; consequently, an affectation of either is discreditable. Some people overstep the boundary of propriety with regard to speech; they fancy that there is nothing in words,

and that one word may be used as well as another but language in some cases is vulgar, owing to its origin; and in others, owing to its corruption; while in others it becomes objectionable, because it is introduced for the sake of expressing, indirectly or ambiguously, what delicacy would not allow in plainer words, but the ignorant and the indelicate appropriate it for their own purpose, and then the more polished must seek for new phraseology. The modest person will choose what is universally acknowledged to be consistent with delicacy. Nothing occasions an opinion of vulgarity and almost brutishness, with regard to a female, more certainly than the using of coarse and indelicate speech. Greater care is necessary in the company of strangers, than in the presence of those with whom we are familiar, and who, knowing the innocence of our intention, will not interpret our language improperly. And sometimes, for the sake of humour, a more vulgar (though not disgusting) language may be used, when the intention is not bad, and the effect will not be injurious.

Customs vary exceedingly in different countries with regard to dress and general conduct. The Oriental ladies deem it disgraceful to exhibit any part of their person; whereas the Roman ladies were scantily covered. It is, however, in the present day, in this country, rather indelicate for a female to wear an exceedingly low dress; and it is, in most cases, repulsive rather than attractive. If all the charms of the softer and more lovely sex were exhibited, the imagination would have nothing whereon to operate. This faculty paints most vi

vidly what is most hidden. A certain coyness of manners, arising from unaffected modesty, is exceedingly pleasing. Blair poetically describes the native timidity of the country maid,—

"Whose lonely unappropriated sweets

Smile like yon knot of cowslips on the cliff,
Not to be come at by the willing hand."

But it must not go to an extreme-to an unnatural or affected repulsiveness, otherwise it will seem to arise from hatred or ignorance, and then it will occasion disgust. In Europe, the ceremony of marriage is free, open, and natural; but, in some countries, the method of choosing a wife, and the forms of matrimony, are altogether contrary to our notions of delicacy.

In Arabia, and in some other parts of the East, it is deemed inconsistent with modesty for a lady to unveil more than one of her eyes; and hence, in the Canticles, it is said, "Thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes." In some countries it has been deemed indelicate for the wife to eat in the company of her husband; to exhibit herself even to her relatives; with a thousand other foolish notions, some of which belong to barbarous and others to civilised nations.

Modesty in a man is exhibited, when appropriate language and consistent actions spring from a heart which intends no evil. But when a person is timid not only of evil, but good and fears to say or do what is appropriate, and what he would wish to perform, then it is bashfulness: and as boldness will bring forward what is offensive, so