r^
 
 ISAAC FOOT 
 LIBRARY
 
 CHARACTERISTICS: 
 
 IN THE MANNER 
 
 OF ROCHEFOUCAULT'S MAXIMS. 
 
 By WILLIAM HAZLITT. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
 BY THE EDITOR OF THE "MONTHLY REPOSITORY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 J. TEMPLEMAN, 248 REGENT STREET 
 
 AND SOLD ALSO BY 
 
 J. MILLER, 404 OXFORD STREET. 
 1837.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BYC. ANDW. RKV.NELL, 
 LITTLE PULTENEY STREET.
 
 ijiun/\« A 
 
 P/? UNIVERSITY OF CALTFORMA 
 
 U~/'7<X, SANTA BARBARA 
 
 IPZ7 
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 In the silence and overshadowing of that night, whose 
 fitful meteoric fires only herald the descent of a super- 
 ficial fame into lasting oblivion, the imbecile and un- 
 availing resistance which is made against the doom, 
 must often excite our pity for the pampered child of 
 market-gilded popularity. It is not with such feelings 
 that we behold the dark thraldom and long-suffering 
 of true intellectual strength. Its brief, though fre- 
 quent soundings beneath the earthy pressure, will be 
 heard even amidst the din of flaunting crowds, or the 
 solemn conclaves of common-place minds ; its obscured 
 head will often shed forth ascending beams that can 
 only be lost in eternity ; and its mighty struggles to 
 upheave its own weight, and that of the superincum- 
 bent mass of prejudice, envy, ignorance, folly, or 
 uncongenial force, must ever ensure the deepest sym- 
 pathy of all those who can appreciate the spirit of its 
 qualities. The full results of fortitude are a pro- 
 tracted triumph, but with genuine power they are at 
 least as certain as the protraction; and those who can 
 afford to wait, both possess and bequeath an all-sufii- 
 cing consolation. Great and original minds, requir-
 
 4 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 ing large scope for action, must necessarily be delayed 
 till there is room enough, seeing they can neither skip 
 nor come side-ways into the light. Levity and nar- 
 rowness are always first admitted, and their rapid suc- 
 cessions only leave space at rare intervals for the 
 advent of solid and capacious attainments. 
 
 " Great wits in every age," says Lord Bacon, " have 
 been overborne, and, in a sort, tyrannized over ; whilst 
 men of capacity and comprehension above the vulgar 
 (yet consulting their own credit and reputation) have 
 submitted themselves to the over-swajdng judgment of 
 time and multitude. Therefore, if in any time and 
 place, more profound contemplations have perchance 
 emerged and revealed themselves, they have been 
 forthwith tost and extinguished by the winds and tem- 
 pests of popular opinions. " Thus it has hitherto been 
 with the writings of William Hazhtt, though there 
 were strong political and personal causes, in addition, 
 to account for it. Some of his admirers will object 
 that the above remarks hardly apply to him, and that, 
 considering all things, he is already appreciated by as 
 large and " fit" an audience as could have been ex- 
 pected in the time ? Perhaps so ; but I consider that 
 neither the extent nor the degree of appreciation, with 
 very few exceptions, is yet, by comparison, more than 
 a fraction of that which he will eventually obtain.
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 5 
 
 I believe it was Mr Proctor who said, in speaking of 
 Hazlitt in the New Monthly, shortly after his death, — 
 " his books are full of wisdom." If those quarterly 
 and monthly reviews, and other lion-and-unicorn pei'i- 
 odicals, in whose pages he has been most traduced and 
 insulted, should be extant fifty years hence, they will 
 all say the same. He will then have been tried and 
 approved by very different powers, and by very differ- 
 ent processes, from such as belong to that species of 
 pantomime criticism, wherein we distinguish nothing 
 but the making of mouths, and posture-masterly atti* 
 tudes of obscene offence, like those of Christophero 
 North, — the clown of Blackwood's Magazine. 
 
 To the aphorism previously quoted from the great 
 philosopher of Verulam, the following poetical corol- 
 lary is appended : — " So that time, like a river, carries 
 down to us that which is light and blown up ; but 
 sinks and drowns that which is weighty and solid."' 
 But here, however satisfactory the reflection might be 
 to those whom it most concerns, a humble protest 
 must be made against the proposition conveyed in the 
 simile. For if the noble works that have been handed 
 down to us from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin poets, 
 philosophers and historians, are mere levities compared 
 with those that are sunk and lost, what super-human 
 folks those ancients must have been I The solid and
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 the weighty must always sink, it is true ; they must 
 find their natural level; but there, in the profound 
 depths of their distress they will also find the centre 
 of the human intellect and the human heart — the only 
 elements of perpetuity — which will identify all Truth 
 with themselves, and rise into universal sympathy at 
 the appointed hour. 
 
 These " Characteristics" of Hazlitt are, perhaps, 
 less known than any of his works. For some private 
 reason — most likely to avoid, for once, the venom- 
 ous attacks of party — he stipulated with the pub- 
 lisher not to put his name to the book. It contains, 
 nevertheless, the spirit of most of his essays, except 
 that it is divested of political bias, as much as was pos- 
 sible with one who felt so strongly the rights and 
 wrongs of mankind. Such political bias as there may 
 be, is latent only, and never rises into startling promi- 
 nence. It may hence be inferred that these condensed 
 theories and reflections, as they combine, should also 
 convey the entire essence of his moral and philosophi- 
 cal essays ? But those who are well acquainted with 
 his writings, will scarcely think it safe to admit this to 
 be the case, since many complicated propositions will 
 here be found briefly stated, which require the clear 
 and convincing elaboration elsewhere bestowed, in 
 order to obtain a general appreciation ; such, for
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 7 
 
 instance, as " The secret of our self-love is just the 
 same as that of our liberality and candour," &c. — " If 
 we are not first, we may as well be last in any pur- 
 suit." &c., with many others, that, to the running 
 reader, will seem sheer paradox and provocation. 
 But when you find that, in the former, he means to 
 include the pleasure we ourselves derive from confer- 
 ring approbation, or benefits, upon others ; and to show 
 that self-love is, in a great measure, the mere result of 
 self-communion, or habitual consciousness, and not 
 the mere result of selfish exclusiveness ; his proposi- 
 tion, whether we admit or reject it, is plain enough. 
 As to the latter, that " if we are not first we may as 
 well be last in any pursuit," the apparent solecism 
 vanishes when he suggests that to be the worst pos- 
 sible in anything often argues the capacity for acquir- 
 ing an opposite excellence of some kind. If Paganini 
 and O'Connell had been changed in their cradles, and 
 expressly educated for the present stations of each 
 other, the world would doubtless have had the worst 
 fiddler, and the worst leader of a political band, that 
 could possibly be conceived? Several of these " Cha- 
 racteristics" will also be found to merge into one 
 another, the truth of the first not being apparent until 
 you arrive at the end of the last, which illustrates, 
 instances, or proves.
 
 8 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 It is not to be denied but many of the ensuing re- 
 flections and maxims originate in a strong personal 
 bias, the result of private and public experience. " The 
 public," he deliberately says, " have neither shame nor 
 gratitude." And he, together with many ' dead deli- 
 verers,' had every reason to say so. But then, some 
 fortunate individuals might say, and with equal reason, 
 that the public is very grateful, — though never, per- 
 haps, very shame-faced ? His remarks on friendship, 
 and on women, are also the result of wounded feel- 
 ings ; but if sundry contemptuous philippics on the • 
 latter excite vexation or disgust in those whose expe- 
 rience induces an opposite opinion, let them turn to the 
 reflection at page 111, Aphorism 312, which embalms, 
 if it does not explain, the whole. It seems, also, he 
 had no cause to love the Scotch. Be it remembered, 
 however, to use the author's own words, that " Truth 
 is not one, but many ; and an observation may be true 
 in itself that contradicts another equally true, accord- 
 ing to the point of view from which we contemplate 
 the subject." This is a fair argmnent for the indivi- 
 dualities of reason, as well as circumstances, time, and 
 place ; nor is it very liable to be refuted by any of our 
 speculations on human nature. 
 
 These " Characteristics" contain much that is cyni- 
 cal, though nothing malevolent, and the author utters
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 9 
 
 many bitter sarcasms, some of which are distinctly 
 levelled at himself. In his most cutting truths it is a 
 striking peculiarity with Hazlitt, that he always brings 
 himself in for his full share. But for profound and 
 original thought, and clear as well as masterly ana- 
 lysis, I would particularly call the reader's attention 
 to pages 51, 52, 56, 63, 98, 108, &c. ; to his remarks 
 on Mandeville and Rochefoucault, at page 44 ; and 
 to the sharply-finished outline of his noble theory 
 of Human Action, contained in the arguments that 
 follow. 
 
 I cannot assume for a moment that in these brief 
 introductory observations anything Hke an adequate 
 idea has been conveyed of the contents of this book. 
 I have endeavoured, however, to supercede some erro- 
 neous impressions that might result from hasty glances, 
 and to express a conviction of its value. I earnestly 
 hope that other periodical writers will not hesitate to 
 do the same, in proportion as they may entertain such 
 a conviction. 
 
 n. H. HOKNE, 
 Author of the " Exposition of the False Medium" ^c.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 The following work was suggested by a perusal of Rochefoucault's 
 Maxims and Moral Reflections. I was so struck with the 
 force and beauty of the style and matter, that I felt an earnest 
 ambition to embody some occasional thoughts of my own in the 
 same form. This was much easier than to retain an equal degree 
 of spirit. Having, however, succeeded indifferently in a few, the 
 work grew under my hands; and both the novelty and agreeable- 
 ness of the task impelled me forward. There is a peculiar stimu- 
 lus, and at the same time a freedom from all anxiety, in this mode 
 of writing. A thought must tell at once, or not at all. There is 
 no opportunity for considering how we shall make out an opinion 
 by labour and prolixity. An observation must be self-evident ; 
 or a reason or illustration (if we give one) must be pithy and con- 
 cise. Each Maxim should contain the essence or ground-work 
 of a separate Essay, but so developed as of itself to suggest a 
 whole train of reflections to the reader ; and it is equally necessary 
 to avoid paradox or common-place. The style also must be sen- 
 tentious and epigrammatic, with a certain pointedness and involu- 
 tion of expression, so as to keep the thoughts distinct, and to 
 prevent them from running endlessly into one another. Such 
 are the conditions to which it seemed to me necessary to conform, 
 in order to insure anything like success to a work of this kind ; 
 or to render the pleasure of the perusal equal to the difiRculty of 
 the execution. There is only one point in which I dare even 
 allude to a comparison with Rochefoucault — I have had no theory 
 to maintain ; and have endeavoured to set down each thought as 
 it occurred to me, without bias or prejudice of any sort.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 I. 
 
 Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There 
 are a hundred persons of merit for one who 
 willingly acknowledges it in another. 
 
 II. 
 
 It is often harder to praise a friend than an 
 enemy. By the last we may acquire a reputa- 
 tion for candour ; by the first we only seem to 
 discharge a debt, and are liable to a suspicion 
 of partiality. Besides, though familiarity may 
 not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of ad- 
 miration ; and the shining points of character 
 are not those we chiefly wish to dwell upon. 
 Our habitual impression of any one is very dif- 
 ferent from the light in which he would choose 
 to appear before the public. We think of him 
 as a friend : we must forget that he is one, be- 
 foi'e we can extol him to others.
 
 2 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 III. 
 
 To speak highly of one with whom we are 
 intimate, is a species of egotism. Our modesty 
 as well as our jealousy teaches us caution on 
 this subject. 
 
 IV. 
 
 What makes it so difficult to do justice to 
 others is, that we are hardly sensible of merit, 
 unless it falls in with our own views and line of 
 pursuit ; and where this is the case, it interferes 
 with our own pretensions. To be forward to 
 praise others, implies either great eminence, that 
 can afford to part with applause ; or great quick- 
 ness of discernment, with confidence in our own 
 judgments ; or great sincerity and love of truth, 
 getting the better of our self-love. 
 
 V. 
 
 Many persons are so narrow in this respect, 
 that they cannot bring themselves to allow the 
 most trifling merit in any one else. This is not 
 altogether ill-nature, but a meanness of spirit 
 or want of confidence in themselves, which is 
 upset and kicks the beam, if the smallest par- 
 ticle of praise is thrown into another's scale. 
 They are poor feeble insects tottering along
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 3 
 
 the road to fame, that are crushed by the sha- 
 dow of opposition, or stopped by a whisper of 
 rivalship. 
 
 VI. 
 
 There are persons, not only whose praise, 
 but whose very names we cannot bear to hear. 
 
 VII. 
 
 There are people who cannot praise a friend 
 for the Kfe of them. With every effort and all 
 the goodwill in the world, they shrink from the 
 task through a want of mental courage ; as some 
 people shudder at plunging into a cold-bath 
 from weak nerves. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Others praise you behind your back, who will 
 not, on any account, do so to your face. Is it 
 that they are afraid of being taken for flatterers? 
 Or that they had rather any one else should 
 know they think well of you than yourself; as 
 a rival is the last person we should wish to hear 
 the favourable opinion of a mistress, because it 
 gives him most pleasure ? 
 
 IX. 
 
 To deny undoubted merit in others, is to deny
 
 4 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 its existence altogether, and consequently our 
 own. The example of illiberality we set is easily ' 
 turned against ourselves. 
 
 X. 
 
 Magnanimity is often concealed under an ap- 
 pearance of shyness, and even poverty of spirit. 
 Heroes, according to Rousseau, are not known 
 by the loftiness of their carriage ; as the greatest 
 braggarts are generally the merest cowards. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Men of the greatest genius are not always the 
 most prodigal of their encomiums. But then it 
 is when their range of power is confined, and they 
 have in fact little perception, except of their own 
 particular kind of excellence. 
 
 XII. 
 
 Popularity disarms envy in well-disposed 
 minds. Those are ever the most ready to do 
 justice to others, who feel that the world has 
 done them justice. When success has not this 
 effect in opening the mind, it is a sign that it 
 has been ill-deserved.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 5 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Some people tell us all the harm— others as 
 carefully conceal all the good they hear of us. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 It signifies little what we say of our acquaint- 
 ance, so that we do not tell them what others 
 say against them. Tale-bearers make all the 
 real mischief. 
 
 XV. 
 
 The silence of a friend commonly amounts 
 to treachery. His not daring to say any thing 
 in our behalf implies a tacit censure. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 It is hard to praise those who are dispraised 
 by others. He is little short of a hero, who 
 perseveres in thinking well of a friend who has 
 become a butt for slander, and a bye-word. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 However we may flatter ourselves to the con- 
 trary, our friends think no higher of us than 
 the world do. They see us with the jaundiced 
 or distrustful eyes of others. They may know 
 B 3
 
 6 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 better, but their feelings are governed by po- 
 pular prejudice. Nay, they are more shy of us 
 (when under a cloud) than even strangers ; for 
 we involve them in a common disgrace, or com- 
 pel them to embroil themselves in continual quar- 
 rels and disputes in our defence. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 We find those who are officious and trou- 
 blesome through sheer imbecility of character. 
 They can neither resolve to do a thing, nor to 
 let it alone ; and by getting in the way, hinder 
 where perhaps they meant to help. To volun- 
 teer a service and shrink from the performance, 
 is to prevent others from undertaking it. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Envy, among other ingredients, has a mixture 
 of the love of justice in it. We are more angry 
 at vmdeserved than at deserved good-fortune. 
 
 XX. 
 
 We admit the merit of some, much less wil- 
 lingly than that of others. This is because 
 there is something about them, that is at vari-
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 7 
 
 ance with their boasted pretensions, either a 
 heaviness importing stupidity, or a levity infer- 
 ring folly, &c. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 The assumption of merit is easier, less embar- 
 rassing, and more effectual than the positive at- 
 tainment of it. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Envy is the most universal passion. We only 
 pride ourselves on the qualities we possess or 
 think we possess ; but we envy the pretensions 
 we have, and those which we have not, and do 
 not even wish for. We envy the greatest qua- 
 lities and every trifling advantage. We envy 
 the most ridiculous appearance or affectation of 
 superiority. We envy folly and conceit : nay, 
 we go so far as to envy whatever confers dis- 
 tinction or notoriety, even vice and infamy. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Envy is a httleness of soul, which cannot see 
 beyond a certain point, and if it does not oc- 
 cupy the whole space, feels itself excluded.
 
 8 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 Or, it often arises from weakness of judgment. 
 We cannot make up our minds to admit the 
 soundness of certain pretensions; and therefore 
 hate tlui appearance, where we are doubtful 
 ul)out the reality. We consider every such tax 
 on oin* applause as a kind of imposition or injus- 
 tice ; so that the withholding our assent is from 
 a fear of being tricked out of our good opinion 
 under false pretences. This is the reason why 
 sudden or upstart advantages are always an ob- 
 ject of such extreme jealousy, and even of con- 
 tempt; and why we so readily bow to the claims 
 of posthumous and long-established reputation. 
 The last is the sterling coin of merit, which we 
 no longer question or cavil at. The other, we 
 think, may be tinsel ; and we are unwilling to 
 give our admiration in exchange for a bauble. 
 It is not that the candidates for it in the one 
 case are removed out of omy way, and make a 
 diversion to the more innnediate claims of our 
 cotemporaries ; but that their own arc so clear 
 and universally acknowledged, that they come 
 home to our feelings and bosoms with their full 
 weight, without any drawbacks of doubt in our
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 9 
 
 own minds, or objection on the part of others. 
 If our envy were intrinsically and merely a ha- 
 tred of excellence and of the approbation due 
 to it, we should hate it the more, the more dis- 
 tinguished and unequivocal it was. On the 
 other hand, our faith in standard reputation is 
 a kind of religion ; and our admiration of it, in- 
 stead of a cold, servile oftering, an enthusiastic 
 homage. There are people who would attempt 
 to persuade us that we read Homer or Milton 
 with pleasure, only to spite some living poet. 
 With them, all our best actions are hypocrisy; 
 and our best feelings, aft'ectation. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 The secret of our self-love is just the same as 
 that of our Hberality and candour. AVe prefer 
 ourselves to others, only because we have a more 
 intimate consciousness and confirmed opinion of 
 our own claims and merits than of any other 
 person's. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 It argues a poor opinion of ourselves, when 
 we cannot admit any other class of merit be- 
 sides our own, or any rival in that class.
 
 10 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 Those who are the most distrustful of them- 
 selves, are the most envious of others ; as the 
 most weak and cowardly are the most revengeful. 
 
 XXVIII. 
 
 Some persons of great talents and celebrity have 
 been remarkable for narrowness of mind and 
 an impatience of every thing like competition. 
 Garrick and other public favourites might be 
 mentioned as instances. This may perhaps be 
 accounted for, either from an undue and intoxi- 
 cating share of applause, so that they became 
 jealous of popularity, as of a mistress ; or from 
 a want of other resources, so as to be unable to 
 repose on themselves without the constant sti- 
 mulus of incense offered to their vanity. 
 
 XXIX. 
 
 We are more jealous of frivolous accomplish- 
 ments with brilliant success, than of the most 
 estimable qualities without it. Dr. Johnson en- 
 vied Garrick whom he despised, and ridiculed 
 Goldsmith whom he loved. 
 
 XXX. 
 
 Persons of slender intellectual stamina dread
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 11 
 
 competition, as dwarfs are afraid of being run 
 over in the street. Yet vanity often prompts 
 them to hazard the experiment, as women 
 through fool-hardiness rush into a crowd. 
 
 XXXI. 
 
 We envy others for any trifling addition to 
 their acknowledged merit, more than for the 
 sum-total, much as we object to pay an addition 
 to a bill, or grudge an acquaintance an unex- 
 pected piece of good fortune. This happens, 
 either because such an accession of accomphsh- 
 ment is like stealing a march upon us, and im- 
 plies a versatility of talent we had not reckoned 
 upon ; or it seems an impertinence and affecta- 
 tion for a man to go out of his way to distin- 
 guish himself; or it is because we cannot ac- 
 count for his proficiency mechanically and as a 
 thing of course, by saying. It is his trade ! In 
 like manner, we plume ourselves most on ex- 
 celling in what we are not bound to do, and are 
 most flattered by the admission of our most 
 questionable pretensions. We nurse the ricketty 
 child, and want to have our faults and weak 
 sides pampered into virtues. We feel little 
 obliged to any one for owning the merit we are
 
 12 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 known to have — it is an old story — but we are 
 mightily pleased to be complimented on some 
 fancy we set up for — it is a feather in our cap, 
 a new conquest, an extension of our sense of 
 power. A man of talent aspires to a reputation 
 for personal address or advantages. Sir Ro- 
 bert Walpole wished to pass for a man of gal- 
 lantry, for which he was totally unfit. A wo- 
 man of sense would be thought a beauty, a 
 beauty a great wit, and so on. 
 
 XXXII. 
 
 Some there are who can only find out in us 
 those good qualities which nobody else has dis- 
 covered : as there are others who make a point 
 of crying up our deserts, after all the rest of the 
 world have agreed to do so. The first are pa- 
 trons, not friends : the last are not friends, but 
 sycophants. 
 
 XXXIII. 
 
 A distinction has been made between acute- 
 ness and subtlety of understanding. This might 
 be illustrated by saying, that acuteness consists 
 in taking up the points or solid atoms, subtlety 
 in feeling the air of truth.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 13 
 
 XXXIV. 
 
 Hope is the best possession. None are com- 
 pletely wretched but those who are without 
 hope ; and few are reduced so low as that. 
 
 XXXV. 
 
 Death is the greatest evil; because it cuts off 
 hope. 
 
 XXXVI. 
 
 While we desire, we do not enjoy ; and with 
 enjoyment desire ceases, which should lend its 
 strongest zest to it. This, however, does not 
 apply to the gratifications of sense, but to the 
 passions, in which distance and difficulty have a 
 principal share. 
 
 XXXVII. 
 
 To deserve any blessing is to set a just value 
 on it. The pains we take in its pursuit are only 
 a consequence of this. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 
 The wish is often " father to the thought :" 
 but we are quite as apt to believe what we dread 
 as what we hope.
 
 14 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 The amiable is the voluptuous in expression 
 or manner. The sense of pleasure in ourselves 
 is that which excites it in others ; or, the art of 
 pleasing is to seem pleased. 
 
 XL. 
 
 Let a man's talents or virtues be what they 
 may, we only feel satisfaction in his society, as 
 he is satisfied in himself. We cannot enjoy the 
 good qualities of a friend, if he seems to be 
 none the better for them. 
 
 XLI. 
 
 We judge of others for the most part by 
 their good opinion of themselves : yet nothing 
 gives such offence or creates so many enemies 
 as that extreme self-complacency or supercili- 
 ousness of manner, which appears to set the 
 opinion of every one else at defiance. 
 
 XLII. 
 
 Self-sufficiency is more provoking than rude- 
 ness or the most unqualified or violent opposi- 
 tion, inasmuch as the latter may be retorted, 
 and implies that we are worth notice ; whereas
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 15 
 
 the former strikes at the root of our self-impor- 
 tance, and reminds us that even our good opi- 
 nion is not worth having. Nothing precludes 
 sympathy so much as a perfect indifference to 
 it. 
 
 XLIII. 
 
 The confession of our failings is a thankless 
 office. It savours less of sincerity or modesty 
 than of ostentation. It seems as if we thought 
 our weaknesses as good as other people's vir- 
 tues. 
 
 XLIV. 
 
 A coxcomb is generally a favorite with wo- 
 men. To a certain point his self-complacency 
 is agreeable in itself; and beyond that, even if 
 it grows fulsome, it only piques their vanity the 
 more to make a conquest of his. He becomes 
 a sort of rival to them in his own good opinion, 
 so that his conceit has all the effect of jealousy 
 in irritating their desire to withdraw his admi- 
 ration from himself. 
 
 XLV. 
 
 Nothing is more successful with women than 
 that sort of condescending patronage of the sex,
 
 16 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 which goes by the name of general gallan- 
 try. It has thp double advantage of imposing 
 on their weakness and flattering their pride. 
 By being indiscriminate, it tantahzes and keeps 
 them in suspense ; and by making a profession 
 of an extreme deference for the sex in general, 
 naturally suggests the reflection, what a dehght- 
 ful thing it must be to gain the exclusive regard 
 of a man who has so high an opinion of what is 
 due to the female character. It is possible for 
 a man, by talking continually of what is femi- 
 nine or unfeminine, vulgar or genteel, by say- 
 ing how shocking such an article of dress is, or 
 that no lady ought to touch a particular kind of 
 food, fairly to starve or strip a whole circle of sim- 
 pletons half-naked, by mere dint of impertinence, 
 and an air of common-place assurance. How 
 interesting to be acquainted with a man whose 
 every thought turns upon the sex ! How charm- 
 ing to make a conquest of one who sets up for 
 a consummate judge of female perfections ! 
 
 XLVI. 
 
 We like characters and actions which we do 
 not approve. There are amiable vices and ob- 
 noxious virtues, on the mere principle that our
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 17 
 
 sympathy with a person who yields to obvious 
 temptations and agreeable impulses (however 
 prejudicial) is itself agreeable ; while to sym- 
 pathize with exercises of self-denial or for- 
 titude, is a painful effort. Virtue costs the 
 spectator, as well as the performer, something. 
 We are touched by the immediate motives of 
 actions, we judge of them by the consequences. 
 We like a convivial character better than an ab- 
 stemious one, because the idea of conviviahty 
 in the first instance is pleasanter than that of 
 sobriety. For the same reason, we prefer ge- 
 nerosity to justice, because the imagination lends 
 itself more easily to an ebullition of feeling, than 
 to the suppression of it on remote and abstracted 
 principles ; and we like a good-natured fool, or 
 even knave better than the severe professors 
 of wisdom and morality. Cato, Brutus, &c. are 
 characters to admire and applaud, rather than 
 to love or imitate. 
 
 XLVII. 
 
 Personal pretensions alone ensure female re- 
 gard. It is not the eye that sees whatever is 
 sublime or beautiful in nature that the fair de- 
 light to see gazing in silent rapture on them- 
 selves, but that which is itself a pleasing object 
 c 3
 
 18 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 to the sense. I may look at a Claude or a Ra- 
 phael by turns, but this does not alter my own 
 appearance ; and it is that which women attend 
 to. 
 
 XLVIII. 
 
 There are persons that we like, though they 
 do not like us. This happens very rarely ; and 
 indeed it argues a strong presumption of merit 
 both in them and in ourselves. We fancy they 
 only want to know us better, to be convinced of 
 the prize they would obtain in our friendship. 
 There are others, to whom no civilities or good 
 offices on their parts can reconcile us, from an 
 original distaste : yet even this repugnance 
 would not, perhaps, be proof against time and 
 custom. 
 
 XLIX. 
 
 We may observe persons who seem to have a 
 peculiar delight in the disagreeable. They catch 
 all sorts of uncouth tones and gestures, the man- 
 ners and dialect of clowns and hoydens, and 
 aim at vulgarity as others ape gentility. (This 
 is what is often understood by a love of low- 
 life.) They sayall sorts of disagreeable things 
 without meaning or feeUng what they say. What 
 startles or shocks other people is to them an
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 19 
 
 amusing excitement, a fillip to their constitu- 
 tions ; and from the bluntness of their percep- 
 tions and a certain wilfulness of spirit, not being 
 able to enter into the refined and pleasurable, 
 they make a merit of being insensible to every 
 thing of the kind. Masculine women, for in- 
 stance, are those who, not being possessed of 
 the charms and delicacy of the sex, affect a su- 
 periority over it by throwing aside all decorum. 
 
 L. 
 
 We find another class who continually do 
 and say what they ought not, and what they do 
 not intend; and who are governed almost en- 
 tirely by an instinct of absurdity. Owing to a 
 perversity of imagination or irritability of nerve, 
 the idea that a thing is improper acts as a me- 
 chanical inducement to it; the fear of commit- 
 ting a blunder is so strong, that they bolt out 
 whatever is uppermost in their minds, before 
 they are aware of it. The dread of some ob- 
 ject haunts and rivets attention to it ; and a 
 continual, uneasy, morbid apprehensiveness of 
 temper takes away their self-possession, and hur- 
 ries them into the very mistakes they wish to 
 avoid.
 
 20 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 LI. 
 
 There are few people quite above, or com- 
 pletely below par, 
 
 LII. 
 
 Society is a more level surface than we ima- 
 gine. Wise men or absolute fools are hard to 
 be met with, as there are few giants or dwarfs. 
 The heaviest charge we can bring against the 
 general texture of society is, that it is common- 
 place; and many of those who are singular, 
 had better be common-place. Our fancied su- 
 periority to others is in some one thing, which 
 we think most of, because we excel in it, or have 
 paid most attention to it ; whilst we overlook 
 their superiority to us in something else, which 
 they set equal and exclusive store by. This is 
 fortunate for all parties. I never felt myself su- 
 perior to any one, who did not go out of his way 
 to affect qualities which he had not. In his own 
 individual character and line of pursuit, everyone 
 has knowledge, experience, and skill : — and who 
 shall say which pursuit requires most, thereby 
 proving his own narrowness and incompetence 
 to decide? Particular talent or genius does not
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 21 
 
 imply general capacity. Those who are most 
 versatile are seldom great in any one depart- 
 ment: and the stupidest people can generally 
 do something. The highest pre-eminence in 
 any one study commonly arises from the con- 
 centration of the attention and faculties on that 
 one study. He who expects from a great name 
 in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness 
 in other things, is little versed in human nature. 
 Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned 
 in books is ignorant of the world. He who is 
 ignorant of books is often well acquainted with 
 other things : for life is of the same length in 
 the learned and unlearned ; the mind cannot be 
 idle ; if it is not taken up with one thing, it at- 
 tends to another through choice or necessity ; 
 and the degree of previous capacity in one class 
 or another is a mere lottery, 
 
 LIII. 
 
 Some things, it is true, are more prominent, 
 and lead to more serious consequences than 
 others, so as to excite a greater share of atten- 
 tion and applause. Public characters, authors, 
 warriors, statesmen, &c. nearly monopolize pub- 
 lic consideration in this way, and are apt to
 
 22 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 judge of their merit by the noise they make in the 
 world. Yet none of these classes would be wil- 
 ling to make the rule absolute ; for a favourite 
 player gains as much applause as any of them. 
 A poet stands a poor chance either of popu- 
 larity with the vulgar, or influence with the great, 
 against a fashionable opera-dancer or singer. 
 Reputation or notoriety is not the stamp of 
 merit. Certain professions, like certain situa- 
 tions, bring it into greater notice, but have, per- 
 haps, no more to do with it than birth or for- 
 time. Opportunity sometimes indeed " throws 
 a cruel sunshine on a fool." I have known se- 
 veral celebrated men, and some of them have 
 been persons of the weakest capacity: yet acci- 
 dent had lifted them into general notice, and 
 probably will hand their memories down to 
 posterity. There are names written in her im- 
 mortal scroll, at whish fame blushes ! 
 
 LIV. 
 
 The world judge of men by their ability in 
 their profession, and we judge of ourselves by 
 the same test ; for it is that on which our suc- 
 cess in life depends. Yet how often do our 
 talents and pursuits lie in different directions !
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 23 
 
 The best painters are not always the cleverest 
 men ; and an author who makes an unfavour- 
 able or doubtful impression on the public, may 
 in himself be a person of rare and agreeable 
 qualifications. One cause of this is affectation. 
 We constantly aim at what we are least fit for, 
 thwarting or despising our natural bent; so that 
 our performances and our characters are unac- 
 countably at variance. 
 
 LV. 
 
 If a man is disliked by one woman, he will 
 succeed with none. The sex (one and all) have 
 the same secret, or free-masonry, in judging of 
 men. 
 
 LVI. 
 
 Any woman may act the part of a coquet suc- 
 cessfully, who has the reputation without the 
 scruples of modesty. If a woman passes the 
 bounds of propriety for our sakes, and throws 
 herself unblushingly at our heads, we conclude 
 it is either from a sudden and violent liking, or 
 from extraordinary merit on our parts, either of 
 which is enough to turn any man's head, who 
 has a single spark of gallantry or vanity in his 
 composition.
 
 24 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 LVII. 
 
 The surest way to make ourselves agreeable 
 to others is by seeming to think them so. If 
 we appear fully sensible of their good qualities, 
 they will not complain of the want of them in us. 
 
 LVIII. 
 
 We often choose a friend as we do a mis- 
 tress, for no particular excellence in themselves, 
 but merely from some circumstance that flatters 
 our self-love. 
 
 LIX. 
 
 Silence is one great art of conversation. He 
 is not a fool who knows when to hold his tongue; 
 and a person may gain credit for sense, elo- 
 quence, wit, who merely says nothing to lessen 
 the opinion which others have of these qualities 
 in themselves. 
 
 LX. 
 
 There are few things in which we deceive 
 ourselves more than in the esteem we profess 
 to entertain for our friends. It is little better 
 than a piece of quackery. The truth is, we 
 think of them as we please — that is, as they 
 please or displease us. As long as we are in 
 good humour with them, we see nothing but
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 26 
 
 their good qualities ; birt no sooner do they of- 
 fend us than we rip up all their bad ones (which 
 we before made a secret of, even to ourselves) 
 with double malice. He who but now was little 
 less than an angel of Ught shall be painted in 
 the blackest colours for a shp of the tongue, 
 " some trick not worth an egg" for the slightest 
 suspicion of offence given or received. We 
 often bestow the most opprobrious epithets on 
 our best friends, and retract them twenty times 
 in the course of a day, while the man himself 
 remains the same. In love, which is all rhap- 
 sody and passion, this is excusable ; but in the 
 ordinary intercourse of life, it is preposterous. 
 
 LXI. 
 
 A man who is always defending his friends 
 from the most trifling charges, will be apt to 
 make other people their enemies. 
 
 Lxri. 
 There are those who see every thing through 
 a medium of enthusiasm or prejudice; and who 
 therefore think, that to admit any blemish in a 
 friend, is to compromise his character altoge- 
 ther. The instant you destroy their heated ex-
 
 26 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 aggerations, they feel that they have no other 
 ground to stand upon. 
 
 LXIII. 
 
 We are ridiculous enough in setting up for 
 patterns of perfection ourselves, without becom- 
 ing answerable for that of others. It is best to 
 confine our absurdities at home. 
 
 LXIV. 
 
 We do not like our friends the worse, be- 
 cause they sometimes give us an opportunity 
 to rail at them heartily. Their faults reconcile 
 us to their virtues. Indeed, we never have 
 much esteem or regard, except for those that 
 we can afford to speak our minds of freely ; 
 whose follies vex us in proportion to our anxiety 
 for their welfare, and who have plenty of re- 
 deeming points about them to balance their de- 
 fects. When we " spy abuses" of this kind, it 
 is a wiser and more generous proceeding to 
 give vent to our impatience and ill-humour, 
 than to brood over it, and let it, by sinking into 
 our minds, poison the very sources of our good- 
 will. 
 
 LXV. 
 
 To come to an explanation with a friend is to
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 27 
 
 do away half the cause of offence ; as to declare 
 the grounds of our complaints and chagrin to a 
 third party, is tacitly to pass them over. Our 
 not daring to hint at the infirmities of a friend 
 implies that we are ashamed to own them, and 
 that we can only hope to keep on good terms 
 with him by being blind to his real character. 
 
 LXVI. 
 
 It is well that there is no one without a fault ; 
 for he would not have a friend in the world. 
 He would seem to belong to a different species. 
 
 LXVII. 
 
 Even among actors, painters, &c. those who 
 are the most perfect, are not always the most ad- 
 mired. It is those who strike by their inequa- 
 lities, and whose faults and excellences keep up 
 a perpetual warfare between the partizans on 
 both sides, that are the most talked of and pro- 
 duce the greatest effect. Nothing is prominent 
 that does not act as a foil to itself. Emery's 
 acting was without a fault. This was all that 
 was ever said about it. His merit was one of 
 those things that nobody insisted on, because it 
 was taken for granted. Mr. Kean agitates
 
 28 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 and almost convulses the public mind by con- 
 trary extremes. It is a question whether Ra- 
 phael would have acquired so great a name, 
 if his colouring had been equal to his drawing 
 or expression. As it is, his figures stand out 
 like a rock, severed from its base : while Cor- 
 regio's are lost in their own beauty and sweet- 
 ness. Whatever has not a mixture of imper- 
 fection in it, soon grows insipid, or seems " stu- 
 pidly good." 
 
 LXVIII. 
 
 I have known persons without a friend — never 
 any one without some virtue. The virtues of 
 the former conspired with their vices to make 
 the whole world their enemies. 
 
 LXIX. 
 
 The study of metaphysics has this advan- 
 tage, at least — it promotes a certain integrity 
 and uprightness of understanding, which is a 
 cure for the spirit of lying. He who has devoted 
 himself to the discovery of truth feels neither 
 pride nor pleasure in the invention of falsehood, 
 and cannot condescend to any such paltry ex- 
 pedient. If you find a person given to vulgar 
 shifts and rhodomontade, and who at the same
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 29 
 
 time tells you he is a metaphysician, do not be- 
 lieve him. 
 
 LXX. 
 
 It is the mischief of the regular study of all 
 art and science, that it proportionably unfits a 
 man for those pursuits or emergencies in life, 
 which require mere courage and promptitude. 
 To any one who has found how difficult it is to 
 arrive at truth or beauty, with all the pains and 
 time he can bestow upon them, every thing 
 seems worthless that can be obtained by a mere 
 assumption of the question, or putting a good 
 face upon the matter. Let a man try to pro- 
 duce a fine picture, or to solve an abstruse pro- 
 blem by giving himself airs of self-importance, 
 and see what he will make of it. But in the 
 common intercourse of life, too much depends 
 on this sort of assurance and quackery. This 
 is the reason why scholars and other eminent 
 men so often fail in what personally concerns 
 themselves. They cannot take advantage of 
 the follies of mankind ; nor submit to arrive at 
 the end they have in view by unworthy means. 
 Those who cannot make the progress of a 
 single step in a favourite study without infinite 
 pains and preparation, scorn to carry the world 
 D 3
 
 30 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 before them, or to win the good opinion of any 
 individual in it, by vapouring and impudence. 
 Yet these last qualities often succeed without 
 an atom of true desert ; and " fools rush in 
 where angels fear to tread." In nine cases out 
 of ten, the mere sanguineness of our pureuit 
 ensures success ; but the having tasked our fa- 
 culties as much as they will bear, does not tend to 
 enhance our overweening opinion of ourselves. 
 The labours of the mind, like the drudgery of 
 the body, impair our animal spirits and alacrity. 
 Those who have done nothing, fancy them- 
 selves capable of every thing : while those who 
 have exerted themselves to the utmost, only 
 feel the limitation of their powers, and evince 
 neither admiration of themselves nor triumph 
 over others. Their work is still to do, and they 
 have no time or disposition for fooling. This 
 is the reason why the greatest men have the 
 least appearance of it. 
 
 LXXI. 
 
 Persons who pique themselves on their under- 
 standing are frequently reserved and haughty : 
 persons who aim at wit are generally courteous 
 and sociable. Those who depend at every turn
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 31 
 
 on the applause of the company, must endeavour 
 to conciliate the good opinion of others by every 
 means in their power. 
 
 " A jest's prosperity lies in the ear 
 Of him who hears it." 
 
 If a habit of jesting lowers a man, it is to the 
 level of humanity. Wit nourishes vanity; rea- 
 son has a much stronger tincture of pride in it. 
 
 LXXII. 
 
 Satirists gain the applause of others through 
 fear, not through love» 
 
 LXXIII. 
 
 Some persons can do nothing but ridicule 
 others. 
 
 LXXIV. 
 
 Parodists, like mimics, seize only on defects, 
 or turn beauties into blemishes. They make 
 bad writers and indifferent actors. 
 
 LXXV, 
 
 People of the greatest gaiety of manners are 
 often the dullest company imaginable. Nothing 
 is so dreary as the serious conversation or wri- 
 ting of a professed wag. So the gravest per-
 
 32 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 sons, divines, mathematicians, and so on, make 
 the worst and poorest jokes, puns, &c. 
 
 LXXVI. 
 
 The expression of a Frenchman's face is often 
 as melancholy when he is by himself, as it is lively 
 in conversation. The instant he ceases to talkj 
 he becomes " quite chop-fallen." 
 
 LXXVII. 
 
 To point out defects, one would think it ne- 
 cessary to be equally conversant with beauties. 
 But this is not the case. The best caricaturists 
 cannot draw a common outline ; nor the best 
 comic actors speak a line of serious poetry with- 
 out being laughed at. This may be perhaps 
 accounted for in some degree by saying, that 
 the perfection of the ludicrous implies that loose- 
 ness or disjointedness of mind, which receives 
 most delight and surprise from oddity and con- 
 trast, and which is naturally opposed to the 
 steadiness and unity of feeling required for the 
 serious, or the sublime and beautiful. 
 
 LXXVIII. 
 
 Different persons have different limits to their
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 33 
 
 capacity. Thus, some excel in one profession 
 generally, such as acting ; others in one depart- 
 ment of it, as tragedy ; others in one character 
 only. Garrick was equally great in tragedy 
 and comedy ; Mrs. Siddons only shone in tra- 
 gedy ; Russell could play nothing but Jerry 
 Sneak.* 
 
 LXXIX. 
 
 Comic actors have generally attempted tra- 
 gedy first, and have a hankering after it to the last. 
 It was the case with Weston, Shuter, Munden, 
 Bannister, and even Liston. Prodigious ! The 
 mistake may perhaps be traced to the imposing 
 eclat of tragedy, and the awe produced by the 
 utter incapacity of such persons to know what to 
 make of it. 
 
 LXXX. 
 
 If we are not first, we may as well be last in 
 any pursuit. To be worst is some kind of dis- 
 tinction, and implies, by the rule of contrary, 
 
 * There is a pleasant instance of this mentioned in the Tatler. 
 There was an actor of that day who could play nothing Ijut the 
 Apothecary in Romeo and Juliet. He succeeded so well in this, 
 that he grew fat upon it, when he was set aside ; and having 
 then nothing to do, pined away till he became qualified for the 
 part again, and had another run in it.
 
 34 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 that we ought to excel in some opposite quality. 
 Thus, if any one has scarcely the use of his 
 limbs, we may conceive it is from his having 
 exercised his mind too much. We suppose 
 that an awkward boy at school is a good scho- 
 lar. So if a man has a strong body, we com- 
 pliment him with a weak mind, and vice versa. 
 
 LXXXI. 
 
 There is a natural principle of antithesis in 
 the human mind. We seldom grant one excel- 
 lence but we hasten to make up for it by a con- 
 trary defect, to keep the balance of criticism 
 even. Thus we say, Titian was a great colour- 
 ist, but did not Jcnoiv how to draw. The first is 
 true : the last is a mere presumption from the 
 first, like alternate rhyme and reason ; or a com- 
 promise with the weakness of human nature, 
 which soon tires of praise. 
 
 LXXXII. 
 
 There is some reason for this cautious distri- 
 bution of merit; for it is not necessary for one man 
 to possess more than one quality in the highest 
 perfection, since no one possesses all, and we are 
 in the end forced to collect the idea of per-
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 35 
 
 fectlon in art from a number of different speci- 
 mens. It is quite sufficient for any one person 
 to do any one thing better than every body else. 
 Any thing beyond this is Uke an impertinence. 
 It was not necessary for Hogarth to paint his 
 Sigismunda; nor for Mis. Siddons to abridge 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 LXXXIII. 
 
 On the stage none but originals can be count- 
 ed as any thing. The rest are " men of no mark 
 or likelihood." They give us back the same 
 impression we had before, and make it worse 
 instead of better. 
 
 LXXXIV. 
 
 It was ridiculous to set up Mr. Kean as a 
 rival to Mr. Kemble. Whatever merits the 
 first might have, they were of a totally differ- 
 ent class, and could not possibly interfere with, 
 much less injure those of his great predecessor. 
 Mr. Kemble stood on his own ground, and he 
 stood high on it. Yet there certainly was a 
 re-action in this case. Many persons saw no 
 defect in Mr. Kemble till Mr. Kean came, and 
 then finding themselves mistaken in thp abstract 
 idea of perfection they had indulged in, were
 
 36 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 ready to give up their opinion altogether. When 
 a man is a gret't favourite with the pubUc, they 
 incline by a natural spirit of exaggeration and 
 love of the marvellous, to heap all sorts of per- 
 fections upon him, and when they find by ano- 
 ther's excellino- him in some one tiling that this 
 is not the case, they are disposed to strip their 
 former idol, and leave him " bare to weather." 
 Nothing is more unjust or capricious than pub- 
 lic opinion. 
 
 LXXXV. 
 
 The public have neither shame nor gratitude. 
 
 LXXXVI. 
 
 Public opinion is the mixed result of the in- 
 tellect of the community acting upon general 
 feeling. 
 
 LXXXVII. 
 
 Our friends are generally ready to do every 
 thing for us, except the very thing we wish 
 them to do. There is one thing in particular 
 they are always disposed to give us, and which 
 we are as miwilling to take, namely, advice. 
 
 LXXXVIII. 
 
 Good-nature is often combined with ill tern-
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 37 
 
 per. Our own uncomfortable feelings teach us 
 to sympathize with others, and to seek relief 
 from our (Jwn uneasiness in the satisfactions we 
 can afford them. Ill-nature combined with good 
 temper is an unnatural and odious character. 
 Our delighting in mischief and suffering, when 
 we have no provocation to it from being ill at 
 ease ourselves, is wholly unpardonable. Yet I 
 have known one or two instances of this sort of 
 callous levity, and gay, laughing malignity. 
 Such people " poison in jest." 
 
 LXXXIX. 
 
 It is wonderful how soon men acquire talents 
 for offices of trust and importance. The higher 
 the situation, the higher the opinion it gives us 
 of ourselves ; and as is our confidence, so is our 
 capacity. We assume an equality with circum- 
 stances. 
 
 xc. 
 
 The difficulty is for a man to rise to high 
 station, not to fill it ; as it is easier to stand on 
 an eminence than to climb up to it. Yet he 
 alone is truly great who is so without the aid of 
 circumstances and in spite of fortune, who is 
 as little lifted up by the tide of opinion, as he is 
 
 E
 
 38 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 depressed by neglect or obscurity, and who 
 borrows dignity only from himself. It is a fine 
 compliment which Pope has paid to'Lord Ox- 
 ford — 
 
 " A soul supreme, in each hard instance tried. 
 Above all pain, all passion, and all pride ; 
 The rage of power, the blast of public breath. 
 The lust of lucre, and the dread of death !" 
 
 XCI. 
 
 The most silent people are generally those who 
 think most highly of themselves. They fancy 
 themselves superior to every one else ; and not 
 being sm'e of making good their secret preten- 
 sions, decline entering the Usts altogether. They 
 thus " lay the flattering unction to their souls," 
 that they could have said better things than 
 others, or that the conversation was beneath 
 them. 
 
 XCII. 
 
 There are writers who never do their best ; 
 lest if they should fail, they should be left with- 
 out excuse in their own opinion. While they 
 trifle with a subject, they feel superior to it. 
 They will not take pains, for this would be a test 
 of what they are actually able to do, and set a
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 39 
 
 limit to their pretensions, while their vanity is 
 unbounded. The more you find fault with them, 
 the more careless they grow, their affected in- 
 difference keeping pace with and acting as a 
 shield against the disapprobation or contempt of 
 others. They fancy whatever they condescend 
 to write must be good enough for the public. 
 
 XCIII. 
 
 Authors who acquire a high celebrity and 
 conceal themselves, seem superior to fame. Pro- 
 ducing great works incognito is like doing good 
 by stealth. There is an air of magnanimity in 
 it, which people wonder at. Junius, and the 
 Author of Waverley are striking examples. Ju- 
 nius, however, is really unknown ; while the Au- 
 thor of Waverley enjoys all the credit of his wri- 
 tings without acknowledging them. Let any one 
 else come foi-ward and claim them; and we should 
 then see whether Sir Walter Scott would stand 
 idle by. It is a curious argvmient that he can- 
 not be the author, because the real author could 
 not help making himself known ; when, if he is 
 not so, the real author has never even been 
 hinted at, and lets another run away with all 
 the praise.
 
 40 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 xciv. 
 
 Some books have a personal character. We 
 
 are attached to the work for the sake of the 
 
 author. Thus we read Walton's Angler as 
 
 we should converse with an agreeable old man, 
 
 not for what he says, so much as for his manner 
 
 of saying it, and the pleasure he takes in the 
 
 subject. 
 
 xcv. 
 
 Some persons are exceedingly shocked at the 
 cruelty of Walton's Angler — as if the most 
 humane could be expected to trouble them- 
 selves about fixing a worm on a hook, at a time 
 when they burnt men at a stake " in conscience 
 and tender heart." We are not to measure the 
 feelings of one age by those of another. Had 
 Walton lived in our day, he would have been 
 the first to cry out against the cruelty of anghng. 
 As it was, his flies and baits were only a part 
 of his tackle. They had not, at this period, 
 the most distant idea of setting up as candidates 
 for our sympathy ! INIan is naturally a savage, 
 and emerges from barbarism by slow degrees. 
 Let us take the streaks of light, and be thankful 
 for them, as they arise an^ tinge the horizoa
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 41 
 
 one by one, and not complain because the noon 
 is long after the dawn of refinement. 
 
 xcvi. 
 
 Livery-servants (I confess it) are the only 
 people I do not like to sit in company Vvith. 
 They oiFend not only by their own meanness, 
 but by the ostentatious display of the pride of 
 their masters. 
 
 xcvii. 
 
 It has been observed, that the proudest peo- 
 ple are not nice in love. In fact, they think 
 they raise the object of their choice above every 
 one else. 
 
 XCVIII. 
 
 A proud man is satisfied with his own good 
 opinion, and does not seek to make converts to it. 
 Pride erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts 
 as sovereign in it. Hence we see why some men 
 are so proud they cannot be affronted, like kings 
 who have no peer or equal. 
 
 XCIX. 
 
 The proudest people are as soon repulsed as 
 the most humble. The last are discouraged by 
 E 3
 
 42 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 the slightest objection or hint of their conscious 
 incapacity, whik the first disdain to enter into 
 any competition, and resent whatever implies a 
 doubt of their self-evident superiority to others. 
 
 c. 
 
 What passes in the world for talent or dex- 
 terity or enterprize, is often only a want of moral 
 principle. We may succeed where others fail, 
 not from a greater share of invention, but from 
 not being nice in the choice of expedients. 
 
 CI. 
 
 Cunning is the art of concealing our own de- 
 fects, and discovering other people's weak- 
 nesses. Or it is taking advantages of others 
 which they do not suspect, because they are 
 contrary to propriety and the settled practice. 
 We feel no inferiority to a fellow who picks our 
 pockets ; though we feel mortified at being over- 
 reached by trick and cunning. Yet there is no 
 more reason for it in the one case than in the 
 other. Any one may win at cards by cheating 
 — till he is found out. We have been playing 
 against odds. So any one may deceive us by 
 lying, or take an unfair advantage of us, who is
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 43 
 
 not withheld by a sense of shame or honesty 
 from doing so. 
 
 CII. 
 
 The completest hypocrites are so by nature. 
 That is, they are without sympathy with others 
 to distract their attention — or any of that ner- 
 vous weakness, which might revok or hesi- 
 tate at the baseness of the means necessary to 
 carry on their system of deception. You can 
 no more tell what is passing in the minds of 
 such people than if they were of a different spe- 
 cies. They, in fact, are so to all moral intents 
 and purposes ; and this is the advantage they 
 have over you. You fancy there is a common 
 link between you, while in reality there is none. 
 
 cm. 
 
 The greatest hypocrites are the greatest 
 dupes. This is either because they think only 
 of deceiving others and are off their guard, or 
 because they really know little about the feel- 
 ings or characters of others from their want of 
 sympath), and of consequent sagacity. Per- 
 haps the resorting to trick and artifice in the 
 first instance implies not only a callousness of 
 feeling, but an obtuseness of intellect, which
 
 44 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 cannot get on by fair means. Thus a girl who 
 is ignorant and stupid may yet have cunning 
 enough to resort to silence as the only chance 
 of conveying an opinion of her capacity. 
 
 CIV. 
 
 The greatest talents do not generally attain 
 to the highest stations. For though high, the 
 ascent to them is narrow, beaten, and crooked. 
 The path of genius is free, and its own. What- 
 ever requires the concurrence and co-operation 
 of others, must depend chiefly on routine and 
 an attention to rules and minutice. Success in 
 business is therefore seldom owing to uncom- 
 mon talents or original power, which is untract- 
 able and self-willed, but to the greatest degree 
 of common-place capacity. 
 
 cv. 
 
 The error in the reasonings of Mandeville, 
 Rochefoucault, and others, is this : they first find 
 out that there is something mixed in the motives 
 of all our actions, and they then proceed to ar- 
 gue, that they must all arise from one motive, 
 i>i;s. self-love. They make the exception the rule. 
 It would be easy to reverse the argument, and
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 45 
 
 prove that our most selfish actions are disinte- 
 rested. There is honour among thieves. Rob- 
 bers, murderers, &c. do not commit those ac- 
 tions, from a pleasure in pure villainy or for 
 their own benefit only, but from a mistaken re- 
 gard to the welfare or good opinion of those 
 with whom they are immediately connected. 
 
 cvi. 
 
 It is ridiculous to say, that compassion, friend- 
 ship, &c. are at bottom only selfishness in dis- 
 guise, because it is we who feel pleasure or pain 
 in the good or evil of others ; for the meaning 
 of self-love is not that it is I who love, but that 
 I love myself. The motive is no more selfish 
 because it is I who feel it, than the action is 
 selfish, because it is I who perform it. To 
 prove a man selfish, it is not surely enough to 
 say, that it is he who feels (this is a mere quibble) 
 but to shew that he does not feel for another ; 
 that is, that the idea of the suffering or welfare 
 of others does not excite any feeling whatever 
 of pleasure or pain in his mind, except from 
 some reference to or reflection on himself. 
 Self-love or the love of self means, that I have 
 an immediate interest m the contemplation of.
 
 46 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 my own good, and that this is a motive to ac- 
 tion; and benesTolence or the love of others 
 means in hke manner, that I have an immediate 
 interest in the idea of the good or evil that may 
 befal them, and a disposition to assist them, in 
 consequence. Self-love, in a word, is sympathy 
 with myself, that is, it is I who feel it, and I 
 who am the object of it: in benevolence or 
 compassion, it is I who still feel sympathy, but 
 another (not myself) is the object of it. If I 
 feel sympathy with others at all, it must be dis- 
 interested. The pleasure it may give me is the 
 consequence, not the cause, of my feeling it. To 
 insist tliat sympathy is self-love because we can- 
 not feel for others, without being ourselves af- 
 fected pleasurably or painfully, is to make non- 
 sense of the question ; for it is to insist that in 
 order to feel for others properly and truly, we 
 must in the first place feel nothing. Cest une 
 mulwaise plaisanterie. That the feeling exists 
 in the individual must be granted, and never ad- 
 mitted of a question : the only question is, how 
 that feeling is caused, and what is its object — and 
 it is to express the two opinions that may be en- 
 tertained on this subject, that the terms, self- 
 love and benevolence, have been appropriated.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 47 
 
 Any other interpretation of them is an evident 
 abuse of language, and a subterfuge in argu- 
 ment, which, driven from the fair field of fact 
 and observation, takes shelter in verbal sophis- 
 try. 
 
 CVII. 
 
 Humility and pride are not easily distinguished 
 from each other. A proud man, who fortifies him- 
 self in his own good opinion, may be supposed 
 not to put forward his pretensions through shy- 
 ness or deference to others : a modest man, who is 
 really reserved and afraid of committing himself, 
 is thought distant and haughty : and the vainest 
 coxcomb who makes a display of himself and 
 his most plausible qualifications, often does so 
 to hide his deficiencies and to prop up his tot- 
 tering opinion of himself by the applause of 
 others. Vanity does not refer to the opinion a 
 man entertains of himself, but to that which he 
 wishes others to entertain of him. Pride is in- 
 different to the approbation of others ; as mo- 
 desty shrinks from it, either through bashful- 
 ness, or from an unwillingness to take any undue 
 advantage of it. I have known several very 
 forward, loquacious, and even overbearing per- 
 sons, whose confidential communications were 
 oppressive from the sense they entertained of
 
 48 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 their own demerits. In company they taUcetl 
 on in mere bravado, and for fear of betraying 
 their weak side, as children make a noise in the 
 dark. 
 
 CVIII. 
 
 True modesty and true pride are much the 
 same thing. Both consist in setting a just value 
 on ourselves — neither more nor less. It is a 
 want of proper spirit to fancy ourselves inferior 
 to others in those things in which we really ex- 
 cel them. It is conceit and want of common 
 sense to arrogate a superiority over others, 
 without the most well-founded pretensions. 
 
 cix. 
 
 A man may be justly accused of vanity and 
 presumption, who either thinks he possesses 
 qualifications which he has not, or greatly over- 
 rates those which he has. An egotist does not 
 think well of himself because he possesses cer- 
 tain qualities, but fancies he possesses a number 
 of excellences, because he thinks well of himself 
 through mere idle self-complacency. True mo- 
 deration is the bounding our self-esteem within 
 the extent of our acquirements.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 49 
 
 ex. 
 
 Conceit is the most contemptible and one of 
 the most odious quahties in the world. It is 
 vanity driven from all other shifts, and forced 
 to appeal to itself for admiration. An author, 
 whose play has been damned over-night, feels a 
 paroxysm of conceit the next morning. Conceit 
 may be defined a restless, overweening, petty, 
 obtrusive, mechanical delight in our own quali- 
 fications, without any reference to their real 
 value, or to the approbation of others, merely 
 because they are ours, and for no other reason 
 whatever. It is the extreme of selfishness and 
 folly. 
 
 CXI. 
 
 Confidence or courage is conscious ability — 
 the sense of power. No man is ever afraid of 
 attempting what he knows he can do better 
 than any one else. Charles Fox felt no diffi- 
 dence in addressing the House of Commons: 
 he was reserved and silent in company, and had 
 no opinion of his talent for writing ; that is, he 
 knew his powers and their limits. The torrent 
 of his eloquence rushed upon him from his 
 knowledge of the subject and his interest in 
 it, unchecked and unbidden, without his once 
 
 F
 
 50 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 thinking of himself or his hearers. As a man 
 is strong, so is he bold. The thing is, that 
 wherever we feel at home, there we are at our 
 ease. The late Sir John Moore once had to 
 review the troops at Plymouth before the King ; 
 and while he v/as on the ground and had to 
 converse with the different persons of the court, 
 with the ladies, and with Mr. Pitt whom he 
 thought a great man, he found himself a good 
 deal embarrassed ; but the instant he mounted 
 his horse and the troops were put in motion, he 
 felt quite relieved, and had leisure to observe 
 what an awkward figure Mr. Pitt made on horse- 
 back. 
 
 CXII. 
 
 The truly proud man knows neither superiors 
 nor inferiors. The first he does not admit of: 
 the last he does not concern himself about. 
 People who are insolent to those beneath them 
 crouch to those above them. Both shew equal 
 meanness of spirit and want of conscious dignity. 
 
 CXIII. 
 
 No elevation or success raises the humble 
 man in his own opinion. To the proud the 
 slightest repulse or disappointment is the last
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 51 
 
 indignity. The vain man makes a merit of mis- 
 fortune, and triumphs in his disgrace. 
 
 cxiv. 
 
 We reserve our gratitude for the manner of 
 conferring benefits ; and we revolt against this, 
 except when it seems to say we owe no obliga- 
 tion at all, and thus cancels the debt of grati- 
 tude as soon as it is incurred. 
 
 cxv. 
 "We do not hate those who injure us, if they 
 do not at the same time woimd our self-love. 
 We can forgive any one sooner than those who 
 Iow,er us in our own opinion. It is no wonder, 
 therefore, that we as often dislike others for 
 their virtues as their vices. We naturally hate 
 whatever makes us despise ourselves. 
 
 cxvi. 
 When you find out a man's ruhng passion, 
 beware of crossing him in it. 
 
 CXVII. 
 
 We sometimes hate those who differ from us 
 in opinion worse than we should for an attempt
 
 52 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 to injure us in the most serious point. A fa- 
 vourite theory is a possession for life ; and we 
 resent any attack upon it proportionably. 
 
 CXVIII. 
 
 Men will die for an opinion as soon as for 
 any thing else. Whatever excites the spirit of 
 contradiction, is capable of producing the last 
 effects of heroism, which is only the highest 
 pitch of obstinacy in a good or a bad cause, in 
 wisdom or folly. 
 
 CXIX. 
 
 We are ready to sacrifice life, not only for 
 our own opinion, but in deference to that of 
 others. Conscience, or its shadow, honour, 
 prevails over the fear of death. The man of 
 fortune and fashion will throw away his life, like 
 a bauble, to prevent the slightest breath of dis- 
 honour. So little are we governed by self-in- 
 terest, and so much by imagination and sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 cxx. 
 
 The most impertinent people are less so from 
 design than from inadvertence. I have known 
 a person who could scarcely open his lips with- 
 out offending some one, merely because he
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 53 
 
 harboured no malice in his heart. A certain 
 excess of animal spirits with thoughtless good- 
 humour will often make more enemies than the 
 most deUberate spite and ill-nature, which is on 
 its guard, and strikes with caution and safety. 
 
 cxxi. 
 
 It is great weakness to lay ourselves open to 
 others, who are reserved towards us. There is 
 not only no equality in it, but we may be pretty 
 sure they will turn a confidence, which they are 
 so little disposed to imitate, against us. 
 
 CXXII. 
 
 A man has no excuse for betraying the se- 
 crets of his friends, unless he also divulges his 
 own. He may then seem to be actuated not by 
 treachery, but indiscretion. 
 
 CXXIII. 
 
 As we scorn them who scorn us, so the con- 
 tempt of the world (not seldom) makes men 
 
 proud. 
 
 cxxiv. 
 
 Even infamy may be oftentimes a source of 
 secret self-complacency. We smile at the im- 
 F 3
 
 54 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 potence of public opinion, when we can survive 
 its worst censures. 
 
 cxxv. 
 
 Simplicity of character is the natural result 
 of profound thought. 
 
 CXXVI. 
 
 The affected modesty of most women is a de- 
 coy for the generous, the delicate, and unsus- 
 pecting; while the artful, the bold, and unfeeling 
 either see or break through its slender disguises. 
 
 CXXVII. 
 
 We as often repent the good we have done as 
 the ill. 
 
 CXXVIII. 
 
 The measure of any man's virtue is what 
 
 he would do, if he had neither the laws nor 
 
 public opinion, nor even his own prejudices, to 
 
 control him. 
 
 cxxix. 
 
 We like the expression of Raphael's faces 
 without an edict to enforce it. I do not see 
 why there should not be a taste in morals 
 formed on the same principle.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 55 
 
 cxxx. 
 
 Where a greater latitude is allowed in mo- 
 rals, the number of examples of vice may in- 
 crease, but so do those of virtue : at least, we 
 are surer of the sincerity of the latter. It is 
 only the exceptions to vice, that arise neither 
 from ignorance nor hypocrisy, that are worth 
 counting. 
 
 cxxxi. 
 
 The fear of punishment may be necessary to 
 the suppi'ession of vice; but it also suspends 
 the finer motives to virtue. 
 
 cxxxir. 
 
 No wise man can have a contempt for the 
 prejudices of others ; and he should even stand 
 in a certain awe of his own, as if they were 
 aged parents and monitors. They may in the 
 end prove wiser than he. 
 
 cxxxiii. 
 
 We are only justified in rejecting prejudices, 
 
 when we can explain the grounds of them; or 
 
 when they are at war with nature, which is the 
 
 strongest prejudice of all. . . .. ,
 
 66 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CXXXIV. 
 
 Vulgar prejudices are those which arise out 
 of accident, ignorance, or authority. Natural 
 prejudices are those which arise out of the con- 
 stitution of the human mind itself. 
 
 cxxxv. 
 
 Nature is stronger than reason : for nature is, 
 after all, the text, reason but the comment. He 
 is indeed a poor creature, who does not feel the 
 truth of more than he knows or can explain satis- 
 factorily to others. 
 
 cxxxvi. 
 
 The mind revolts against certain opinions, 
 as the stomach rejects certain foods, 
 
 cxxxvii. 
 
 The drawing a certain positive hne in morals, 
 beyond which a single false step is irretrievable, 
 makes virtue formal, and vice desperate. 
 
 CXXXVIII. 
 
 Most codes of morality proceed on a suppo- 
 sition of Original Sin ; as if the only object was 
 to coerce the headstrong propensities to vice.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 57 
 
 and there were no natural disposition to good 
 in the mind, which it was possible to improve, 
 refine, and cultivate. 
 
 cxxxix. 
 
 This negative system of virtue leads to a 
 very low style of moral sentiment. It is as if 
 the highest excellence in a picture was to avoid 
 gross defects in drawing ; or in writing, in- 
 stances of bad grammar. It ought surely to be 
 our aim in virtue, as well as in other things, " to 
 snatch a grace beyond the reach of art." 
 
 CXL. 
 
 We find many things, to which the prohibi- 
 tion of them constitutes the only temptation. 
 
 CXLI. 
 
 There is neither so much vice nor so much 
 virtue in the world, as it might appear at first 
 sight that there is. Many people commit ac- 
 tions that they hate, as they affect virtues that 
 they laugh al, merely because others do so. 
 
 CXLII. 
 
 When the imagination is continually led to 
 the brink of vice by a system of terror and de-
 
 5« CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 nunciations, people fling themselves over the 
 precipice from the mere dread of falling. 
 
 CXLIII. 
 
 The maxim — Video meliora proboque, dete^ 
 riora sequor — has not been fully explained. In 
 general, it is taken for granted, that those things 
 that our reason disapproves, we give way to from 
 passion. Nothing like it. The course that per- 
 sons in the situation of Medea pursue has often 
 as little to do with inclination as with judgment : 
 hut they are led astray by some object of a dis- 
 turbed imagination, that shocks their feelings 
 and staggers their beUef ; and they grasp the 
 phantom to put an end to this state of torment- 
 ing suspense, and to see whether it is human or 
 not. 
 
 CXLIV. 
 
 Vice, like disease, floats in the atmosphere. 
 
 CXLV. 
 
 Honesty is one part of eloquence. We per- 
 suade others by being in earnest ourselves. 
 
 CXLVI. 
 
 A mere sanguine temperament often passes 
 for genius and patriotism.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 59 
 
 CXLVll. 
 
 Animal spirits are continually taken for wit 
 and fancy; and the want of them, for sense 
 and judgment. 
 
 CXLVIII. 
 
 In ptiblic speaking, we must appeal either to 
 the prejudices of others, or to the love of truth 
 and justice. If we think merely of displaying our 
 own ability, we shall ruin every cause we under- 
 take. 
 
 CXLIX. 
 
 Those who cannot miss an opportunity of 
 saying a good thing or of bringing in some fan- 
 tastical opinion of their own, are not to be 
 trusted with the management of any great ques- 
 tion. 
 
 CL. 
 
 There are some public speakers who commit 
 themselves and their party by extravagances 
 uttered in heat and through vanity, which they 
 retract in cold blood through cowardice and 
 caution. They outrage propriety, and trim to 
 self-interest. 
 
 CLI. 
 
 An honest man is respected by all parties.
 
 60 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 We forgive a hundred rude or offensive things 
 that are uttered from conviction or in the con- 
 scientious discharge of a duty — never one, that 
 proceeds from design or a view to raise the per- 
 son wlio says it above us. 
 
 cur. 
 Truth from the mouth of an honest man, or 
 severity from a good-natured one, has a double 
 effect. 
 
 CLIII. 
 
 A person who does not endeavour to seem 
 more than he is, will generally be thought no- 
 thing of. We habitually make such large de- 
 ductions for pretence and imposture, that no 
 real merit will stand against them. It is ne- 
 cessary to set off our good qualities with a cer- 
 tain air of plausibility and self-importance, as 
 some attention to fashion is necessary to de- 
 cency. 
 
 CLIV. 
 
 If we do not aspire to admiration, we shall 
 fall into contempt. To expect sheer, even- 
 handed justice from mankind, is folly. They 
 take the gross inventory of our pretensions ; and 
 not to have them overlooked entirely, we must
 
 CHAEACTERISTICS. 61 
 
 place them in a conspicuous point of view, as men 
 write their trades or fix a sign over the doors 
 of their houses. Not to conform to the esta- 
 blished practice in either respect, is false deli- 
 cacy in the commerce of the world. 
 
 CLV. 
 
 There has been a considerable change in 
 dress and manners in the course of a century 
 or two, as well as in the signs and badges of 
 different professions. The streets are no lon- 
 ger encumbered with numberless emblems of 
 mechanical or other occupations, nor crowded 
 with the pomp and pageantry of dress, nor 
 embroiled by the insolent airs assumed by 
 the different candidates for rank and prece- 
 dence. Our pretensions become less gross and 
 obtrusive with the progress of society, and as 
 the means of communication become more re- 
 fined and general. The simplicity and even 
 slovenliness of the modern beau form a striking 
 contrast to the dazzling finery and ostentatious 
 formality of the old-fashioned courtier ; yet both 
 are studied devices and symbols of distinction. 
 It would be a curious speculation to trace the va- 
 rious modes of affectation in dress from the age 
 
 G
 
 6-2 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 of Elizabeth to the present time, in connection 
 with the caprices of fashion, and the march of 
 opinion ; and to shew in what manner Sir Isaac 
 Newton's Princijna or Rousseau's Emihus have 
 contributed to influence the ghding movements 
 and curtail the costume of a modern dandy ! 
 
 CLVI. 
 
 UnUmited power is helpless, as arbitrary 
 power is capricious. Our energy is in propor- 
 tion to the resistance it meets. We can at- 
 tempt nothing great, but from a sense of the dif- 
 ficidties we have to encounter : we can perse- 
 vere in nothing great, but from a pride in over- 
 coming them. Where our will is our law, we ea- 
 gerly set about the first trifle we think of, and lay 
 it aside for the next trifle that presents itself, or 
 that is suggested to us. The character of des- 
 potism is apathy or levity — or the love of mis- 
 chief, because the latter is easy and suits its 
 pride and wantonness. 
 
 CLVII. 
 
 AflPectation is as necessary to the mind, as 
 dress is to the body.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 63 
 
 CLVIII. 
 
 Man is an intellectual animal, and therefore 
 an everlasting contradiction to himself. His 
 senses centre in himself, his ideas reach to the 
 ends of the universe; so that he is torn in pieces 
 between the two, without a possibility of its ever 
 being otherwise. A mere physical being, or a 
 pure spirit, can alone be satisfied with itself. 
 
 CLIX. 
 
 Our approbation of others has a good deal 
 of selfishness in it. We hke those who give 
 us pleasvu'e, however little they may wish for or 
 deserve our esteem in return. We prefer a 
 person with vivacity and high spirits, though 
 bordering upon insolence, to the timid and pu- 
 sillanimous ; we are fonder of wit joined to ma- 
 lice, than of dulness without it. We have no 
 great objection to receive a man who is a villain 
 as our friend, if he has plausible exterior quali- 
 ties ; nay, we often take a pride in our harmless 
 familiarity with him, as we might in keeping a 
 tame panther : but we soon grow weary of the 
 society of a good-natured fool who puts our 
 patience to the test, or of an awkward clown, 
 who puts our pride to the blush.
 
 64 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CLX. 
 
 We are fonder of visiting our friends in 
 health than in sickness. We judge less favour- 
 ably of their characters, when any misfortune 
 happens to them ; and a lucky hit, either in bu- 
 siness or reputation, improves even their per- 
 sonal appearance in our eyes. 
 
 CLXI. 
 
 An heiress, with a large fortune and a mode- 
 rate share of beauty, easily rises into a reignmg 
 toast. \ 
 
 CLXII. 
 
 One shining quality lends a lustre to another, 
 or hides some glaring defect. 
 
 CLXIII. 
 
 We are never so much disposed to quarrel 
 with others as when we are dissatisfied with 
 ourselves. 
 
 CLXIV. 
 
 We are never so thoroughly tired of the 
 company of any one else as we sometimes are 
 of our own. 
 
 CLXV. 
 
 People outlive the interest, which, at different
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 65 
 
 periods of their lives, they take in themselves. 
 When we forget old friends, it is a sign we have 
 forgotten ourselves ; or despise our former ways 
 and notions, as much as we do their present 
 ones. 
 
 CLXVI. 
 
 We fancy ourselves superior to others, be- 
 cause we find that we have improved ; and at 
 no time did we think ourselves inferior to them. 
 
 CLXVII. 
 
 The notice of others is as necessary to us as 
 the air we breathe. If we cannot gain their 
 good opinion, we change our battery, and strive 
 to provoke their hatred and contempt. 
 
 CLXYIII. 
 
 Some malefactors, at the point of death, con- 
 fess crimes, of which they have never been 
 guilty, thus to raise our wonder and indignation 
 in the same proportion ; or to shew their supe- 
 riority to vulgar prejudice, and brave that pub- 
 lic opinion, of which they are the victims. 
 
 CLXIX. 
 
 Others make an ostentatious display of their 
 G 3
 
 66 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 penitence and remorse, only to invite sympathy, 
 and create a diversion in their own minds from 
 the subject of their impending punishment. So 
 that we excite a strong emotion in the breasts 
 of others, we care httle of what kind it is, or by 
 what means we produce it. We have equally 
 the feeling of power. The sense of insignifi- 
 cance or of being an object of perfect indiffe- 
 rence to others, is the only one that the mind 
 never covets nor willingly submits to. 
 
 CLXX. 
 
 There are not wanting instances of those, 
 who pass their whole lives in endeavouring to 
 make themselves ridiculous. They only tire of 
 their absurdities when others are tired of talk- 
 ing about and laughing at them, so that they 
 have become a stale jest. 
 
 CLXXI. 
 
 People in the grasp of death wash all the evil 
 they have done (as well as all the good) to be 
 known, not to make atonement by confession, 
 but to excite one more strong sensation before 
 they die, and to leave their interests and passions
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 67 
 
 a legacy to posterity, when they themselves are 
 exempt from the consequences. 
 
 CLXXII. 
 
 We talk little, if we do not talk about our- 
 selves. 
 
 CLXXIII. 
 
 We may give more offence by our silence than 
 even by impertinence. 
 
 CLXXIV. 
 
 Obstinate silence implies either a mean opi- 
 nion of ourselves or a contempt of our company : 
 and it is the more provoking, as others do not 
 know to which of these causes to attribute it, 
 whether to humility or pride. 
 
 CLXXV. 
 
 Silence proceeds either from want of some- 
 thing to say, or from a phlegmatic indifference 
 which closes up our lips. The sea, or any other 
 striking object, suddenly bursting on a party of 
 mutes in a stage-coach, will occasion a general 
 exclamation of surprise; and the ice being once 
 broken, they may probably be good company 
 for the rest of the journey.
 
 i 
 68 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CLXXVI. 
 
 We compliment ourselves on our national re- 
 serve and taciturnity by abusing the loquacity 
 and frivolity of the French. 
 
 CLXXVII. 
 
 Nations, not being willing or able to correct 
 their own errors, justify them by the opposite 
 errors of other nations. 
 
 CLXXVIII. 
 
 We easily convert our own vices into virtues, 
 the virtues of others into vices. 
 
 CLXXIX. 
 
 A person who talks with equal vivacity on 
 every subject, excites no interest in any. Re- 
 pose is as necessary in conversation as in a pic- 
 ture. 
 
 CLXXX. 
 
 The best kind of conversation is that which 
 may be called thinking aloud. I like very well 
 to speak my mind on any subject (or to hear 
 another do so) and to go into the question ac- 
 cording to the degree of interest it naturally in- 
 spires, but not to have to get up a thesis upon
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 69 
 
 every topic. There are those, on the other 
 hand, who seem always to be practising on their 
 audience, as if they mistook them for a De- 
 BATiNG-SociETY, or to hold a general retainer, 
 by which they are bound to explain every diffi- 
 culty, and answer every objection that can be 
 started. This, in private society and among 
 friends, is not desirable. You thus lose the 
 two great ends of conversation, which are to 
 learn the sentiments of others, and see what 
 they think of yours. One of the best talkers 
 I ever knew had this defect — that he evidently 
 seemed to be considering less what he felt on 
 any point than what might be said upon it, and 
 that he listened to you, not to weigh what you 
 said, but to reply to it, like counsel on the 
 other side. This habit gave a brilliant smooth- 
 ness and polish to his general discourse, but, at 
 the same time, took from its solidity and pro- 
 minence : it reduced it to a tissue of lively, 
 fluent, ingenious common-places, (for original, 
 genuine observations are like "minute drops 
 from oiFthe eaves," and not an incessant shower) 
 «nd, though his talent in this way was carried 
 to the very extreme of cleverness, yet I think it 
 seldom, if ever, went beyond it.
 
 70 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CLXXXI. 
 
 Intellectual excellence can seldom be a source^ 
 of much satisfaction to the possessor. In a 
 gross period, or in vulgar society, it is not un- 
 derstood ; and among those who are refined 
 enough to appreciate its value, it ceases to be a 
 distinction. 
 
 CLXXXII. 
 
 There is, I think, an essential difference of 
 character in mankind, between those who wish 
 to do, and those who wish to have certain things. 
 I observe persons expressing a great desire to 
 possess fine horses, hounds, dress, equipage, 
 &c. and an envy of those who have them. I 
 myself have no such feeling, nor the least am- 
 bition to shine, except by doing something 
 better than others. I have the love of power, 
 but not of property. I should like to be able 
 to outstrip a greyhound in speed ; but I should 
 be ashamed to take any merit to myself from 
 possessing the fleetest greyhound in the world. 
 1 cannot transfer my personal identity from my- 
 self to what I merely call mine. The gene- 
 rality of mankind are contented to be estimated 
 by what they possess, instead of what they are.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 71 
 
 CLXXXIII. 
 
 Buonaparte observes, that the diplomatists 
 of the new school were no match for those 
 brought up under the ancient regime. The 
 reason probably is, that the modern style of 
 intellect inclines to abstract reasoning and ge- 
 neral propositions, and pays less attention to 
 individual character, interests, and circum- 
 stances. The moderns have, therefore, less 
 tact in watching the designs of others, and less 
 closeness in hiding their own. They perhaps 
 have a greater knowledge of things, but less of 
 the world. They calculate the force of an ar- 
 gument, and rely on its success, moving in va- 
 cuo, without sufficiently allowing for the resis- 
 tance of opinion and prejudice. 
 
 CLXXXIV. 
 
 The most comprehensive reasoners are not 
 always the deepest or nicest observers. They 
 are apt to take things for granted too much, as 
 parts of a system. Lord Egmont, in a speech in 
 ParUament, in the year 1750, has the following 
 remarkable observations on this subject. " It is 
 not common sense, but downright madness, to 
 follow general principles in this wild manner
 
 72 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 without limitation or reserve ; and give me leave 
 to say one thing, which I hope will be long re- 
 membered, and well thought upon by all those 
 who hear me — that those gentlemen who plume 
 themselves thus upon their open and extensive 
 understandings, are in fact, the men of the nar- 
 rowest principles in the kingdom. For what is a 
 narrow mind ? It is a mind that sees any proposi- 
 tion in one single contracted point of view, unable 
 to complicate any subject with the circumstances, 
 or considerations, that are or may or ought to 
 be combined with it. And pray, what is that 
 understanding which looks upon the question of 
 naturalization only in this general view, that 
 naturalization is an increase of the people, and 
 the increase of the people is the riches of the 
 nation ? Never admitting the least reflection, 
 what the people are whom you let in upon us ; 
 how, in the present bad regulation of the police, 
 they are to be employed or maintained; how 
 their principles, opinions, or practice may m- 
 lluence the reHgion or politics of the state, or 
 what operation their admission may have upon 
 the peace and tranquilUty of the country. Is not 
 such a genius equally contemptible and narrow 
 with that of the poorest mortal upon earth, who
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 73 
 
 grovels for his wliole life within the verge of the 
 opposite extreme ?" 
 
 CLXXXV. 
 
 In an Englishman, a diversity of profession 
 and pursuit (as the having been a soldier, a 
 valet, a player, &c.) implies a dissipation and 
 dissoluteness of character, and a fitness for 
 nothing. In a Frenchman, it only shews a na- 
 tural vivacity of disposition, and a fitness for 
 every thing. 
 
 CLXXXVI. 
 
 Impudence, like every thing else, has its 
 Hmits. Let a man be ever so hardened and 
 unblushing, there is a point at which his cou- 
 rage is sure to fail him ; and not being able to 
 carry off the matter with his usual air of confi- 
 dence, he becomes more completely confused 
 and awkward than any one else would in the 
 same circumstances. 
 
 CLXXXVII. 
 
 Half the miseries of human life proceed from 
 our not perceiving the incompatibility of diffe- 
 rent attainments, and consequently aiming at 
 too much. We make ourselves wretched in 
 vainly, aspiring after advantages we are deprived
 
 74 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 of; and do not consider that if we had these 
 advantages, it would be quite impossible for us 
 to retain those which we actually do possess, 
 and which, after all, if it were put to the ques- 
 tion, we would not consent to part with for the 
 sake of any others. 
 
 CLXXXVIII. 
 
 If we use no ceremony towards others, we 
 shall be treated without any. People are soon 
 tired of paying trifling attentions to those who 
 receive them with coldness, and return them 
 with neglect. 
 
 CLXXXIX. 
 
 Surly natures have more pleasure in dis- 
 obhging others than in serving themselves. 
 
 cxc. 
 
 People in general consult their prevailing hu- 
 mour or ruHng passion (whatever it may be) 
 much more than their interest. 
 
 cxci. 
 
 One of the painters (Teniers,) has represented 
 monkeys with a monk's cloak and cowl. This 
 has a ludicrous effect enough. To a superior 
 race of beings the pretensions of mankind to
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 75 
 
 extraordinary sanctity and virtue must seem 
 equally ridiculous. 
 
 CXCII. 
 
 When we speak ill of people behind their 
 backs, and are civil to them to their faces, we 
 may be accused of insincerity. But the con- 
 tradiction is less owing to insincerity than to 
 the change of circumstances. We think well of 
 them while we are with them ; and in their ab- 
 sence recollect the ill we durst not hint at or 
 acknowledge to ourselves in their presence. 
 
 CXCIII. 
 
 Our opinions are not our own, but in the 
 power of sympathy. If a person tells us a 
 palpable falsehood, we not only dare not con- 
 tradict him, but we dare hardly disbelieve him 
 to his face. A lie boldly uttered has the effect 
 of truth for the instant. 
 
 cxciv. 
 
 A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, 
 but Ues at the mercy of the profligacy of others. 
 Calumny requires no proof. The throwing 
 out mahcious imputations against any character
 
 7G CHARACTERISTICS, 
 
 leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can 
 wipe out. To create an unfavourable impres- 
 sion, it is not necessary that certain things 
 should be true, but that they have been said. 
 The imagination is of so delicate a texture, 
 that even words wound it. 
 
 cxcv. 
 
 A nickname is a mode of insinuating a preju- 
 dice against another under some general de- 
 signation, which, as it offers no proof, admits of 
 
 no reply. 
 
 cxcvi. 
 
 It does not render the person less contempti- 
 ble or ridiculous in vulgar opinion, because it 
 may be harmless in itself, or even downright 
 nonsense. By repeating it incessantly, and leav- 
 ing out every other characteristic of the indivi- 
 dual, whom we wish to make a bye-word of, it 
 seems as if he were an abstraction of insignifi- 
 cance. 
 
 cxcvii. 
 
 Want of principle is power. Truth and ho- 
 nesty set a limit to our efforts, which impudence 
 and hypocrisy easily overleap.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. T7 
 
 cxcviir. 
 There are many who talk on from ignorance, 
 rather than from knowledge ; and who find the 
 former an inexhaustible fund of conversation. 
 
 CXCIX. 
 
 Nothing gives such a blow to friendship as 
 the detecting another in an untruth. It strikes 
 at the root of our confidence ever after. 
 
 cc. 
 
 In estimating the value of an acquaintance or 
 even friend, we give a preference to intellectual 
 or convivial over moral qualities. The truth 
 is, that in our habitual intercourse with others, 
 we much oftener require to be amused than 
 assisted. We consider less, therefore, what a 
 person with whom we are intimate is ready to 
 do for us in critical emergencies, than what he 
 has to say on ordinary occasions. We dispense 
 with his services, if he only saves w&ixova. ennui. 
 In civilized society, words are of as much im- 
 portance as things. 
 
 cci. 
 We cultivate the society of those who are 
 above us in station, and beneath us in capacity, 
 
 H 3
 
 78 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The one we do from choice, the other from ne- 
 cessity. Our interest dictates our submission 
 to the first ; our vanity is flattered by the ho- 
 mage of the last. 
 
 ecu. 
 A man of talents, who shrinks from a coUi- 
 sion with his equals or superiors, will soon sink 
 below himself. We improve by trying our 
 strength with others, not by shewing it off. A 
 person who shuts himself up in a little circle of 
 dependants and admirers for fear of losing 
 ground in his own opinion by jostHng with the 
 world at large, may continue to be gaped at by 
 fools, but will forfeit the respect of sober and 
 sensible men. 
 
 CCIII. 
 
 There are others, who entertaining a high 
 opinion of themselves, and not being able (for 
 want of plausible qualities) to gather a circle 
 of butterflies round them, retire into solitude, 
 and there worship the Echoes and themselves. 
 They gain this advantage by it — the Echoes 
 do not contradict them. But it is a question, 
 whether by dwelling always on their own vir- 
 tues and merits, unmolested, they increase the 
 stock. They, indeed, pamper their ruling vices.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 79 
 
 and pile them mountain-high ; and looking down 
 on the world from the elevation of their retreat, 
 idly fancy that the world has nothing to do but 
 to look up to them with wondering eyes. 
 
 cciv. 
 
 It is a false principle, that because we are 
 entirely occupied with ourselves, we must equally 
 occupy the thoughts of others. The contrary 
 inference is the fair one. 
 
 ccv. 
 
 It is better to desire than to enjoy — to love 
 
 than to be loved. 
 
 ccvi. 
 
 Every one would rather be Raphael than 
 Hogarth. Without entering into the question 
 of the talent required for their different works, 
 or the pleasure derived from them, we prefer 
 that which confers dignity on hiunan nature to 
 that which degrades it. We would wish to do 
 what we would wish to be. And, moreover, it 
 is most difficult to do what it is most difficult to 
 be. 
 
 CCVII. 
 
 A selfish feeHng requires less moral capacity 
 than a benevolent one : a selfish expression re-
 
 80 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 quires less intellectual capacity to execute it 
 than a benevolent one ; for in expression, and 
 all that relates to it, the intellectual is the re- 
 flection of the moral. Raphael's figures are 
 sustained by ideas : Hogarth's are distorted by 
 mechanical habits and instincts. It is elevation 
 of thought that gives grandeur and delicacy of 
 expression to passion. The expansion and re- 
 finement of the soul are seen in the face, as 
 in a mirror. An enlargement of purpose gives a 
 corresponding enlargement of form. The mind, 
 as it were, acts over the whole body, and ani- 
 mates it equally, while petty and local interests 
 seize on particular parts, and distract it by con- 
 trary and mean expressions. Now, if mental 
 expression has this superior grandeur and grace, 
 we can account at once for the superiority of 
 Raphael. For there is no doubt, that it is 
 more diflicult to give a whole continuously and 
 proportionably than to give the parts separate 
 and disjointed, or to diffuse the same subtle but 
 powerful expression over a large mass than to 
 caricature it in a single part or feature. The 
 actions in Raphael are like a branch of a tree 
 swept by the surging blast; those in Hogarth like 
 straws whirled and twitched about in the gusts 
 and eddies of passion. I do not meajj to say
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 81 
 
 that goodness alone constitutes greatness, but 
 mental power does. Hogarth's Good Appren- 
 tice is insipid : Raphael has clothed Elymas 
 the Sorcerer with all the dignity and grandeur 
 of vice. Selfish characters and passions borrow 
 greatness from the range of imagination, and 
 strength of purpose ; and besides, have an ad- 
 vantage in natural force and interest. 
 
 CCVIII. 
 
 We find persons who are actuated in all their 
 tastes and feelings by a spirit of contradiction. 
 They like nothing that other people do, and 
 have a natural aversion to whatever is agreeable 
 in itself. They read books that no one else 
 reads ; and are delighted with passages that no 
 one understands but themselves. They only 
 arrive at beauties through faults and difficulties ; 
 and all their conceptions are brought to light 
 by a sort of Caesarean process. This is either 
 an affectation of singularity ; or a morbid taste, 
 that can relish nothing that is obvious and sim- 
 ple. 
 
 ccix. 
 
 An unaccomitable spirit of contradiction is 
 sometimes carried into men's behaviour and ac- 
 tions. They never do any thing from a direct mo-
 
 82 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 tive, or in a straight-forward manner. They get 
 rid of all sorts of obligations, and rush on destruc- 
 tion without the shadow of an excuse. They take 
 a perverse delight in acting not only contrary to 
 reason, but in opposition to their own inclina- 
 tions and passions, and are forever in a state 
 of cross-purposes with themselves. 
 
 ccx. 
 
 There are some persons who never decide 
 from deUberate motives at all, but are the mere 
 creatures of impulse. 
 
 ccxi. 
 
 Insignificant people are a necessary relief in 
 society. Such characters are extremely agree- 
 able, and even favourites, if they appear satis- 
 fied with the part they have to perform. 
 
 CCXII. 
 
 Little men seldom seem conscious of their 
 diminutive size ; or make up for it by the erect- 
 ness of their persons, or a peculiarly dapper 
 air and manner. 
 
 CCXIII. 
 
 Any one is to be pitied, who has just sense 
 enough to perceive his deficiencies.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 83 
 
 CCXIV. 
 
 I had rather be deformed, than a dwarf and 
 well-made. The one may be attributed to ac- 
 cident ; the other looks like a deliberate insult 
 on the part of nature. 
 
 ccxv. 
 Personal deformity, in the well-disposed, pro- 
 duces a fine, placid expression of countenance ; 
 in the ill-tempered and peevish, a keen, sarcas- 
 tic one. 
 
 ccxvi. 
 
 People say ill-natured things without design, 
 but not without having a pleasure in them. 
 
 CCXVII. 
 
 A person who blunders upon system, has a 
 secret motive for what he does, unknown to 
 himself. 
 
 CCXVIII. 
 
 If any one by his general conduct contrives 
 to part friends, he may not be aware that such 
 is the tendency of his actions, but assuredly it 
 is their motive. He has more pleasure in see- 
 ing others cold and distant, than cordial and 
 intimate.
 
 84 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCXIX. 
 
 A person who constantly meddles to no pur- 
 pose, means to do harm, and is not sorry to find 
 he has succeeded. 
 
 ccxx. 
 
 Cunning is natural to mankind. It is the 
 
 sense of our weakness, and an attempt to effect 
 
 by concealment what we cannot do openly and 
 
 by force. 
 
 ccxxi. 
 
 In love we never think of moral qualities, and 
 scarcely of intellectual ones. Temperament and 
 manner alone (with beauty) excite love. 
 
 CCXXII. 
 
 There is no one thoroughly despicable. We 
 cannot descend much lower than an ideot ; and 
 an ideot has some advantages over a wise man. 
 
 CCXXIII. 
 
 Comparisons are odious, because they reduce 
 every one to a standard he ought not to be tried 
 by, or leave us in possession only of those claims 
 which we can set up, to the entire exclusion of
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 85 
 
 others. By striking off the common quahties, 
 the remainder of excellence is brought down to 
 a contemptible fraction. A man may be six feet 
 high, and only an inch taller than another. In 
 comparisons, this difference of an inch is the only 
 thing thought of or ever brought into question. 
 The greatest genius or virtue soon dwindles into 
 nothing by such a mode of computation. 
 
 ccxxiv. 
 
 It is a fine remark of Rousseau's, that the 
 best of us differ from others in fewer particu- 
 lars than we agree with them in. The diffe- 
 rence between a tall and a short man is only a 
 few inches, whereas they are both several feet 
 high. So a wise or learned man knows many 
 things, of which the vulgar are ignorant ; but 
 there is a still greater number of things, the 
 knowledge of which they share in common 
 with him. 
 
 ccxxv. 
 
 I am always afraid of a fool. One cannot be 
 sure that he is not a knave as well. 
 
 ccxxvi. 
 Weakness has its hidden resources, as well as
 
 86 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 strength. There is a degree of folly and mean- 
 ness which we cannot calculate upon, and by 
 which we are as much liable to be foiled, as by 
 the greatest ability or courage. 
 
 CCXXVII. 
 
 We can only be degraded in a contest with 
 low natures. The advantages that others ob- 
 tain over us are fair and honourable to both 
 
 parties. 
 
 ccxxviir. 
 
 Reflection makes men cowards. There is no 
 object that can be put in competition with life, 
 unless it is viewed through the medium of pas- 
 sion, and we are hurried away by the impulse of 
 
 the moment. 
 
 ccxxix. 
 
 The youth is better than the old age of friend- 
 ship. 
 
 ccxxx. 
 
 In the course of a long acquaintance we have 
 repeated all our good things and discussed all our 
 favourite topics several times over, so that our 
 conversation becomes a mockery of social inter- 
 course. We might as well talk to ourselves. 
 The soil of friendship is worn out mth constant
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 87 
 
 use. Habit may still attach us to each other, 
 but we feel ourselves fettered by it. Old friends 
 might be compared to old married people with- 
 out the tie of children. 
 
 ccxxxr. 
 
 We grow tired of ourselves, much more of 
 other people. Use may in part reconcile us to 
 our own tediousness, but we do not adopt that 
 of others on the same paternal principle. We 
 may be willing to tell a story twice, never to hear 
 one more than once. 
 
 CCXXXII. 
 
 If we are long absent from our friends, we 
 forget them : if we are constantly with them, we 
 despise them. 
 
 CCXXXIII. 
 
 There are no rules for friendship. It must be 
 left to itself: we cannot force it any more than 
 love. 
 
 ccxxxiv. 
 
 The most violent friendships soonest wear 
 themselves out. 
 
 ccxxxv. 
 
 To be capable of steady friendship or lasting
 
 B8 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 love, are the two greatest proofs, not only of 
 goodness of heart, but of strength of mind. 
 
 CC XXXVI. 
 
 It makes us proud when our love of a mis- 
 tress is returned : it ought to make us prouder 
 that we can love her for herself alone, without 
 the aid of any such selfish reflection. This is 
 the religion of love. 
 
 CCXXXVII. 
 
 An EngUsh officer who had been engaged in 
 an intrigue in Italy going home one night, 
 stumbled over a man fast asleep on the stairs. 
 It was a bravo who had been hired to assassi- 
 nate him. Such, in this man, was the force of 
 
 conscience ! 
 
 ccxxxviir. 
 
 An eminent artist having succeeded in a pic- 
 ture which drew crowds to admire it, received 
 a letter from a shuffling old relation in these 
 terms, " Dear Cousin, now you may draw good 
 bills with a vengeance." Such is the force of 
 habit ! This man only wished to be Raphael 
 that he might carry on his old trade of drawing 
 bills.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 09 
 
 CCXXXIX. 
 
 Mankind are a herd of knaves and fools. It 
 is necessary to join the crowd, or get out of 
 their way, in order not to be trampled to death 
 by them. 
 
 CCXL. 
 
 To think the worst of others, and do the best 
 we can ourselves, is a safe rule, but a hard one 
 to practise. 
 
 CCXLI. 
 
 To think ill of mankind and not wish ill to 
 them, is perhaps the highest wisdom and virtue, 
 
 CCXLII. 
 
 We may hate and love the same person, nay 
 even at the same moment. 
 
 CCXLIII. 
 
 We never hate those whom we have once 
 loved, merely because they have injured us. 
 " We may kill those of whom we are jealous," 
 says Fielding, " but we do not hate them." We 
 are enraged at their conduct and at ourselves as 
 the objects of it, but tliis does not alter our 
 passion for them. The reason is, we loved them 
 without their loving us ; we do not hate them 
 i3
 
 90 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 because they hate us. Love may turn to in- 
 tlifFerence with possession, but is irritated by 
 disappointment. 
 
 CCXLIV. 
 
 Revenge against the object of our love is mad- 
 ness. No one would kill the woman he loves, 
 but that he thinks he can bring her to life 
 afterwards. Her death seems to him as mo- 
 mentary as his own rash act. See Othello. — 
 *' My wife! I have no wife," &c. He stabbed 
 not at her life, but at her falsehood ; he thought 
 to kill the wanton, and preserve the wife. 
 
 CCXLV. 
 
 We revenge in haste and passion : we repent 
 at leisure and from reflection. 
 
 CCXLVI. 
 
 By retaliating our sufferings on the heads of 
 those we love, we get rid of a present uneasi- 
 ness, and incur lasting remorse. With the ac- 
 complishment of our revenge our fondness re- 
 turns ; so that we feel the injury we have done 
 them, even more than they do. 
 
 ccxLvir. 
 I think men formerly were more jealous of
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 91 
 
 their rivals in love — they are now more jealous 
 of their mistresses, and lay the blame on them. 
 That is, we formerly thought more of the mere 
 possession of the person, which the removal of 
 a favoured lover prevented, and we now think 
 more of a woman's affections, which may still 
 follow him to the tomb. To kill a rival is to kill 
 a fool ; but the Goddess of our idolatry may be 
 a sacrifice worthy of the Gods. Hackman did 
 not think of shooting Lord Sandwich but Miss 
 
 Ray. 
 
 ccxLvm. 
 
 Many people in reasoning on the passions 
 make a continual appeal to common sense. But 
 passion is without common sense, and we must 
 frequently discard the one in speaking of the 
 other. 
 
 CCXLIX. 
 
 It is provoking to hear people at their case 
 talking reason to others in a state of violent suf- 
 fering. If you can remove their suffering by a 
 word speaking, do so ; and then they ^vill be in 
 a state to hear calm reason. 
 
 CCL. 
 
 There is nothing that I hate as I do to hear
 
 92 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 a common-place set up against a feeling of truth 
 and nature. 
 
 CCLI. 
 
 People try to reconcile you to a disappoint- 
 ment in love, by asking why you should cherish 
 a passion for an object that has proved itself 
 M'orthless. Had you known this before, you 
 would not have encouraged the passion; but that 
 having been once formed, knowledge does not 
 destroy it. If we have drank poison, finding it 
 out does not prevent its being in our veins : so 
 passion leaves its poison in the mind ! It is the 
 nature of all passion and of all habitual affection; 
 we throw ourselves upon it at a venture, but we 
 cannot return by choice. If it is a wife that has 
 proved unworthy, men compassionate the loss, 
 because there is a tie, they say, which we cannot 
 get rid of. But has the heart no ties ? Or if it is 
 a child, they understand it. But is not true love 
 a child? Or when another has become a part of 
 ourselves, " where we must live or have no life at 
 all," can we tear them from us in an instant ? — 
 No : these bargains are for life ; and that for 
 which our souls have sighed for years, cannot 
 be forgotten with a breath, and without a pang.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 93 
 
 CCLII. 
 
 Besides, it is uncertainty and suspense that 
 chiefly irritate jealousy to madness. When we 
 know our fate, we become gradually reconciled 
 to it, and try to forget a useless sorrow. 
 
 ccLiir. 
 
 It is wonderful how often we see and hear of 
 Shakespear's plays without being annoyed with 
 it. Were it any other writer, we should be sick 
 to death of the very name. But his volumes 
 are like that of nature, we can turn to them 
 again and again : — 
 
 " Age cannot wither, nor custom stale 
 His infinite variety." 
 
 CCLIV. 
 
 The contempt of a wanton for a man who is 
 determined to think her virtuous, is perhaps 
 the strongest of all others. He officiously re- 
 minds her of what she ought to be ; and she 
 avenges the galling sense of lost character on 
 the fool who still believes in it. 
 
 CCLV. 
 
 To find that a woman whom we loved has for-
 
 94 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 feited her character, is the same thing as to 
 learn that she is dead. 
 
 CCLVI. 
 
 The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hy- 
 pocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself 
 hypocrisy. 
 
 CCLVII. 
 
 Once a renegado, and always a renegado. 
 
 CCLVIII. 
 
 By speaking truth to the really beautiful, we 
 learn to flatter other women. 
 
 CCLIX. 
 
 There is a kind of ugliness which is not dis- 
 agreeable to women. It is that which is con- 
 nected with the expression of strong but bad 
 passions, and implies spirit and power. 
 
 CCLX. 
 
 People do not persist in their vices because 
 they are not weary of them, but because they 
 cannot leave them off. It is the nature of vice 
 to leave us no resource but in itself.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. % 
 
 CCLXI. 
 
 Our consciousness of injustice makes us add 
 to the injury. By aggravating a wrong, we 
 seem to ourselves to justify it. The repetition 
 of the blow inflames our passion and deadens 
 reflection. 
 
 CCLXII. 
 
 In confessing the greatest oflPences, a criminal 
 gives himself credit for his candour. You and 
 he seem to have come to an amicable under- 
 standing on his character at last. 
 
 ccLxiir. 
 
 A barefaced profligacy often succeeds to an 
 overstrained preciseness in morals. People in 
 a less licentious age carefully conceal the vices 
 they have ; as they afterwards, with an air of phi- 
 losophic freedom, set up for those they have not. 
 
 CCLXIV. 
 
 It is a sign that real religion is in a state of de- 
 cay, when passages in compliment to it are ap- 
 plauded at the theatre. Morals and sentiment 
 fall within the province of the stage ; but reli- 
 gion, except where it is considered as a beautiful
 
 9G CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 fiction which ought to be treated with lenity, 
 does not depend upon our suffrages. 
 
 CCLXV. 
 
 There are persons to whom success gives no 
 satisfaction, unless it is accompanied with dis- 
 honesty. Such people willingly ruin themselves, 
 in order to ruin others. 
 
 CCLXVI. 
 
 Habitual liars invent falsehoods not to gain 
 any end or even to deceive their hearers, but to 
 amuse themselves. It is partly practice and 
 partly habit. It requires an effort in them to 
 speak truth. 
 
 CCLXVII. 
 
 A knave thinks himself a fool, all the time he 
 is not making a fool of some other person. 
 
 CCLXVIII. 
 
 Fontenelle said, " If his hand were fuU of 
 truths, he would not open his fingers to let 
 them out." Was this a satire on truth or on 
 mankind ? 
 
 CCLXIX. 
 
 The best kind of conversation is that which
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 97 
 
 is made up of observations, reflections, and anec- 
 dotes. A string of stories without application 
 is as tiresome as a long-winded argument. 
 
 CCLXX. 
 
 The most insignificant people are the most 
 apt to sneer at others. They are safe from re- 
 prisals, and have no hope of rising in their own 
 esteem, but by lowering their neighbours. The 
 severest critics are always those, who have either 
 never attempted, or who have failed in original 
 composition. 
 
 CCLXXI. 
 
 More remarks are made upon any one's dress, 
 looks, &c. in walking twenty yards along the 
 streets of Edinburgh, or other provincial towns, 
 than in passing from one end of London to 
 the other. 
 
 CCLXXII. 
 
 There is less impertinence and more indepen- 
 dence in London than in any other place in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 CCLXXIII. 
 
 A man who meets thousands of people in a day 
 who never saw or heard of him before, if he thinks 
 at all, soon learns to think Uttle of himself. Lon- 
 
 K
 
 98 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 don is the place where a man of sense is soonest 
 cured of his coxcombry, or where a fool may 
 indulge his a anity with impunity, by giving him- 
 self what airs he pleases. A valet and a lord 
 are there nearly on a level. Among a million of 
 men, we do not count the units ; for we have not 
 time. 
 
 CCLXXIV. 
 
 There is some virtue in almost every vice, ex- 
 cept hypocrisy; and even that, while it is a 
 mockery of virtue, is at the same time a compli- 
 ment to it. 
 
 CCLXXV. 
 
 It does not follow that a man is a hypocrite, 
 because his actions give the lie to his words. 
 If he at one time seems a saint, and at other 
 times a sinner, he possibly is both in reality, as 
 well as in appearance. A person may be fond 
 of vice and of virtue too ; and practise one or 
 the other, according to the temptation of the 
 moment. A priest may be pious, and a sot or 
 bigot. A woman may be modest, and a rake at 
 heart. A poet may admire the beauties of na- 
 ture, and be envious of those of other writers. 
 A moralist may act contrary to his own precepts, 
 and yet be sincere in recommending them to
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 99 
 
 others. These are indeed contradictions, but 
 they arise out of the contradictory quahties in 
 our nature. A man is a hypocrite only when 
 he affects to take a delight in what he does not 
 feel, not because he takes a perverse delight in 
 opposite things. 
 
 CCLXXVI. 
 
 The greatest offence against virtue is to speak 
 ill of it. To recommend certain things is worse 
 than to practise them. There may be an excuse 
 for the last in the frailty of passion ; but the for- 
 mer can arise from nothing but an utter depra- 
 vity of disposition. Any one may yield to tempta- 
 tion, and yet feel a sincere love and aspiration 
 after virtue ; but he who maintains vice in theory, 
 has not even the idea or capacity for virtue in 
 his mirtd. Men err : fiends only make a mock 
 at goodness. 
 
 CCLXXVII. 
 
 The passions make antitheses and subtle dis- 
 tinctions, finer than any pen. 
 
 CCLXXVIII. 
 
 I used to think that men were governed by 
 their passions more than by their interest or 
 reason, till I heard the contrary maintained in
 
 100 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 .Scotland, viz. that the main-chance is the great 
 object in hfe, and the proof given of it was, that 
 every man in the street where we were talking, 
 however he might have a particular Jiohhy, 
 minded his business as the principal thing, and 
 endeavoured to make both ends meet at the end 
 of the year. This was a shrewd argument, and 
 it was Scotch. I could only answer it in my 
 own mind by turning to different persons among 
 my acquaintance who have been ruined with 
 their eyes open by some whim or fancy. One, 
 for instance, married a girl of the town : a second 
 divorced his wife to marry a wench at a lodging- 
 house, who refused him, and whose cruelty and 
 charms are the torment of his own life, and 
 that of all his friends : a third drank ^himself 
 to death ; a fourth is the dupe and victim of 
 quack advertisements : a fifth is the slave of his 
 wife's ill-humour : a sixth quarrels with all his 
 friends without any motive : a seventh lies on to 
 the end of the chapter, and to his own ruin, &c. 
 It is true, none of these are Scotchmen ; and yet 
 they live in houses, rather than in the open 
 air, and follow some trade or vocation to avoid 
 starving outright. If this is what is meant by 
 a calculation of consequences, the doctrine may
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 101 
 
 hold true ; but it does not infringe upon the 
 main point. It affects the husk, the shell, but 
 not the kernel of our dispositions. The pleasure 
 or torment of our lives is in the pursuit of some 
 favourite passion or perverse humour. 
 
 " Within our bosoms reigns another lord. 
 Passion, sole judge and umpire of itself." 
 
 CCLXXIX. 
 
 There are few things more contemptible than 
 the conversation of men of the town. It is made 
 up of the technicalities and cant of all professions, 
 without the spirit or knowledge of any. It is 
 flashy and vapid, and is like the rinsiBgs of diffe- 
 rent liquors at a night-cellar instead of a bottle 
 of fine old port. It is without clearness or body, 
 and a heap of affectation. 
 
 CCLXXX. 
 
 The conversation of players is either dull or 
 bad. They are tempted to say gay or fine 
 things from the habit of uttering them with 
 applause on the stage, and unable to do it from 
 the habit of repeatmg what is set down for them 
 by rote. A good comic actor, if he is a sensible 
 man, will generally be silent in company. It is 
 K 3
 
 102 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 not liis profession to invent bon mots, but to de- 
 liver them ; and he will scorn to produce a the- 
 atrical effect by grimace and mere vivacity. A 
 great tragic actress should be a mute, except on 
 the stage. She cannot raise the tone of common 
 conversation to that of tragedy, and any other 
 must be quite insipid to her. Repose is neces- 
 sary to her. She who died the night before in 
 Cleopatra, ought not to revive till she appears 
 again as Cassandra or Aspasia. In the inter- 
 vals of her great characters, her own should be 
 a blank, or an unforced, unstudied part. 
 
 CCLXXXI. 
 
 To marry an actress for the admiration she 
 excites on the stage, is to imitate the man who 
 bought Punch. 
 
 CCLXXXII. 
 
 To expect an author to talk as he writes is 
 ridiculous ; or even if he did, you would find 
 fault with him as a pedant. We should read 
 authors, and not converse with them. 
 
 CCLXXXIII. 
 
 Extremes meet. Excessive refinemenl is of-
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 103 
 
 ten combined with equal grossness. They act 
 as a relief to each other, and please bj^ contrast, 
 
 CCLXXXIV. 
 
 The seeds of many of our vices are sewn in 
 our blood: others we owe to the bile, or a fit of 
 indigestion. A sane mind is generally the effecfe 
 of a sane body. 
 
 CCLXXXV. 
 
 Health and good temper are the two greatest 
 blessings in life. In all the rest, men ai'e equal, 
 or find an equivalent. 
 
 ccLXXXvr. 
 
 Poverty, labour, and calamity, are not without 
 their luxuries ; which the rich, the indolent, and 
 the fortunate, in vain seek for. 
 
 CCLXXXVII. 
 
 Good and ill seem as necessary to human life 
 as light and shade are to a picture. We grow 
 weary of uniform success, and pleasure soon suir- 
 feits. Pain makes ease delightful ; hunger re- 
 lishes the homeliest food, fatigue turns tlie 
 hardest bed to down; and the difficulty and un- 
 certainty of pursuit in all cases enhance the va-
 
 104 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 lue of possession. The wretched are in this 
 respect fortunate, that they have the strongest 
 yearnings after happiness ; and to desire is in 
 some sense to enjoy. If the schemes of Uto- 
 pians could be reahzed, the tone of society would 
 be changed from what it is, into a sort of insipid 
 high life. There could be no fine tragedies 
 written; nor would there be any pleasure in 
 seeing them. We tend to this conclusion already 
 with the progress of civilization. 
 
 CCLXXXVIII. 
 
 The pleasure derived from tragedy is to be 
 accounted for in this way, that, by painting the 
 extremes of human calamity, it by contrast kin- 
 dles the affections, and raises the most intense 
 imagination and desire of the contrary good. 
 
 CCLXXXIX. 
 
 The question respecting dramatic illusion has 
 not been fairly stated. There are different de- 
 grees and kinds of belief. The point is not 
 whether we do or do not believe what we see to 
 be a positive reality, but how far and in what 
 manner we beheve in it. We do not say every 
 moment to ourselves, " This is real:" but neither
 
 CHARACTER1ST1C8. 105 
 
 do wc say every moment, " This is not real." 
 The invohmtary impression steals upon us, till 
 we recollect ourselves. The appearance of 
 reality, in fact, is the reality, so long and in as 
 far as we are not conscious of the contradictory 
 circumstances that disprove it. The belief in a 
 well-acted tragedy never amounts to what the 
 witnessing the actual scene would prove, and 
 never smks into a mere phantasmagoria. — Its 
 power of affecting us is not, however, taken away, , 
 even if we abstract the feeling of identity ; for it 
 still suggests a stronger idea of what the reality 
 would be, just as a picture reminds us more pow- 
 erfully of the person for whom it is intended, 
 though we are conscious it is not the same. 
 
 ccxc. 
 We have more faith in a well-written romance, 
 while we are reading it, than in common liis- 
 tory. The vividness of the representations in the 
 one case, more than counterbalances the mere 
 knowledge of the truth of the facts in the other. 
 
 ccxci. 
 
 It is remarkable how virtuous and generously 
 disposed every one is at a play. We uniformly 
 applaud what is right and condemn what is
 
 lOG CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 wrong, when it costs us nothing but the senti- 
 ment. 
 
 CCXCII. 
 
 Great natural advantages are seldom com- 
 bined with great acquired ones, because they 
 render the labour required to attain the last su- 
 perfluous and irksome. It is only necessary to be 
 admired ; and if we are admired for the graces 
 of our persons, we shall not be at much pains 
 to adorn our minds. If Pope had been a beau- 
 tiful youth, he would not have written the Rape 
 of the Lock.* A beautiful woman, who has 
 only to shew herself to be admired, and is fa- 
 mous by nature, will be in no danger of becom- 
 ing a bluestocking, to attract notice by her learn- 
 ing, or to hide her defects. 
 
 ccxciir. 
 
 Those people who are always iniprovi7ig, never 
 become great. Greatness is an eminence, the 
 ascent to which is steep and lofty, and which a 
 man must seize on at once by natural boldness 
 and vigour, and not by patient, wary steps. 
 
 CGXCIV. 
 
 The late Mr. Opie remarked, that an artist 
 
 * Milton was a beautiful youth, and yet he wrote Paradise Lost.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 107 
 
 often put his best thoughts into his first works. 
 His earliest efforts were the result of the study 
 of all his former life, whereas his later and more 
 mature performances (though perhaps more skil- 
 ful and finished) contained only the gleanings of 
 his after-observation and experience. 
 
 ccxcv. 
 
 The effort necessary to overcome difficulty 
 urges the student on to excellence. When he 
 can once do well with ease, he grows compara- 
 tively careless and indifferent, and makes no far- 
 ther advances to perfection. 
 
 ccxcvr. 
 
 When a man can do better than every one else 
 in the same walk, he does not make any very 
 painful exertions to outdo himself. The pro- 
 gress of improvement ceases nearly at the point 
 where competition ends. 
 
 ccxcvir. 
 
 We are rarely taught by our own experi- 
 ence ; and much less do we put faith in that of 
 others. 
 
 CCXCVIII. 
 
 We do not attend to the advice of the sage
 
 103 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 and experienced, because we think they are old, 
 forgetting that they once were young and placed 
 m the same situations as ourselves. 
 
 ccxci. 
 We are egotists in morals as well as in other 
 things. Every man is determined to judge for 
 himself as to his conduct in Hfe, and finds out 
 what he ought to have done, when it is too late 
 to do it. For this reason, the world has to be- 
 gin again with each successive generation. 
 
 ccc. 
 
 We should be inclined to pay more attention 
 to the wisdom of the old, if they shewed greater 
 indulgence to the follies of the young. 
 
 ccci. 
 
 The best lesson we can learn from witnessing 
 
 the folly of mankind is not to irritate ourselves 
 
 against it. 
 
 cccir. 
 
 If the world were good for nothing else, it io 
 a fine subject for speculation. 
 
 CCCIII. 
 
 In judging of individuals, we always allow
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 100 
 
 something to character ; for even when this is 
 not agreeable or praise-worthy, it affords ex- 
 ercise for our sagacity, and baffles the harshness 
 
 of our censure. 
 
 ccciv. 
 
 There are persons to whom we never think 
 of applying the ordinary rules of judging. They 
 form a class by themselves and are curiosities in 
 morals, like non-descripts in natural history. 
 We forgive whatever they do or say, for the sin- 
 gularity of the thing, and because it excites at- 
 tention. A man who has been hanged, is not 
 the worse subject for dissection ; and a man who 
 deserves to be hanged, may be a very amusing 
 companion or topic of discourse. 
 
 cccv. 
 
 Every man, in his own opinion, forms an ex- 
 ception to the ordinary rules of morality. 
 
 cccvi. 
 
 No man ever owned to the title of a murderer, 
 
 a tyrant, &c. because, however notorious the 
 
 facts might be, the epithet is accompanied with a 
 
 reference to motives and marks of opprobrium 
 
 L
 
 110 CHARACTERISTICS, 
 
 in common language and in the feelings of others, 
 which he does not acknowledge in his own mind. 
 
 CCCVII. 
 
 There are some things, the idea of which alone 
 is a clear gain to the human mind. Let people 
 rail at virtue, at genius and friendship as long 
 as they will — the very names of these disputed 
 qualities are better than any thing else that could 
 be substituted for them, and embalm even the 
 most angry abuse of them. 
 
 CCCVIII. 
 
 If goodness were only a theory, it were a pity 
 it should be lost to the world. 
 
 CCCIX. 
 
 Were good and evil ever so nearly balanced 
 in reality, yet imagination would add a casting- 
 weight to the favourable scale, by anticipating 
 the bright side of what is to come, and throwing 
 a pleasing melancholy on the past. 
 
 cccx. 
 Women, when left to themselves, talk chiefly
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. Ill 
 
 about their dress : they think more about their 
 lovers than they talk about them. 
 
 CCCXI. 
 
 With women, the great business of life is love ; 
 and they generally make a mistake in it. They 
 consult neither the heart nor the head, but are 
 led away by mere humour and fancy. If instead 
 of a companion for life, they had to choose a 
 partner in a country-dance or to trifle away an 
 hour with, their mode of calculation would be 
 right. They tie their true-lover's knot with 
 idle, thoughtless haste, while the institutions of 
 society render it indissoluble. 
 
 CCCXII. 
 
 When we hear complaints of the wretched- 
 ness or vanity of human life, the proper answer 
 to them would be that there is hardly any one 
 who at some time or other has not been in love^ 
 If we consider the high abstraction of this feel- 
 ing, its depth, its purity, its voluptuous refine- 
 ment, even in the meanest breast, how sacred 
 and how sweet it is, this alone may reconcile us 
 to the lot of humanity. That drop of balm 
 turns the bitter cup to a dehcious nectar — 
 " And vindicates the ways of God to man."
 
 112 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCXIII. 
 
 It is impossible to love entirely, without being 
 loved again. Otherwise, the fable of Pygmalion 
 would have no meaning. Let any one be ever 
 so much enamoured of a woman who does not 
 requite his passion, and let him consider what 
 he feels when he finds her scorn or indifference 
 turning to mutual regard, the thrill, the glow 
 of rapture, the melting of two hearts into one, 
 the creation of another self in her — and he will 
 own that he was before only half in love ! 
 
 cccxiv. 
 
 Women never reason, and therefore they are 
 (comparatively) seldom wrong. They judge in- 
 stinctively of what falls under their immediate ob- 
 servation or experience, and do not trouble them- 
 selves about remote or doubtful consequences. 
 If they make no profound discoveries, they do 
 not involve themselves in gross absurdities. It 
 is only by the help of reason and logical inference, 
 according to Hobbes, that " man becomes ex- 
 cellently wise, or excellently foolish."* 
 
 cccxv. 
 Women are less cramped by circumstances or 
 
 • Leviathan.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 113 
 
 education than men. They are more the crea- 
 tures of nature and mipulse, and less cast in the 
 mould of habit or prejudice. If a young man 
 and woman in common Hfe are seen walking out 
 together on a holiday, the girl has the advan- 
 tage in point of air and dress. She has a greater 
 aptitude in catching external accomplishments 
 and the manners of her superiors, and is less de- 
 pressed by a painful consciousness of her situa- 
 tion in life. A Quaker girl is often as sensible 
 and conversable as any other woman : while a 
 Quaker man is a bundle of quaint opinions and 
 conceit. Women are not spoiled by educa- 
 tion and an affectation of superior wisdom. 
 They take their chance for wit and shrewdness, 
 and pick up their advantages, according to their 
 opportunities and turn of mind. Their faculties 
 (such as they are) shoot out freely and grace- 
 fully, like the slender trees in a forest ; and are 
 not clipped and cut down, as the understandings 
 of men are, into uncouth shapes and distorted 
 fancies, like yew-trees in an old-fashioned gar- 
 den. Women in short resemble self-taught men, 
 with more pliancy and delicacy of feeling. 
 
 L 3
 
 114 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCXVI. 
 
 Women have as little imagination as they have 
 reason. They are pure egotists. They cannot 
 go out of themselves. There is no instance of 
 a woman having done any thing great in poetry 
 or philosophy. They can act tragedy, because 
 this depends very much on the physical expres- 
 sion of the passions — they can sing, for they 
 have flexible throats and nice ears — they can 
 write romances about love — and talk forever 
 about nothing. 
 
 CCCXVII. 
 
 Women are not philosophers or poets, pa- 
 triots, morahsts, or politicians — they are simply 
 women. 
 
 CCCXCVIII. 
 
 Women have a quicker sense of the ridiculous 
 than men, because they judge from immediate 
 impressions, and do not wait for the explanation 
 that may be given of them. 
 
 CCCXIX. 
 
 English Women have nothing to say on ge- 
 neral subjects : French women talk equally well 
 on them or any other. This may be obviously 
 accounted for from the circumstance that the two
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 115 
 
 sexes associate much more together in France 
 than they do with us, so that the tone of con- 
 versation in the women has become mascuhne, 
 and that of the men effeminate. The tone of 
 apathy and indifference in France to the weigh- 
 tier interests of reason and humanity is ascri- 
 bable to the same cause. Women have no spe- 
 culative facuhy or fortitude of mind, and wher- 
 ever they exercise a continual and paramount 
 sway, all must be soon lauglied out of counte- 
 nance, but the immediately intelligible and agree- 
 able — but the shewy in religion, the lax in mo- 
 rals, and the superficial in philosophy. 
 
 cccxx. 
 
 The texture of women's minds, as well as of 
 their bodies, is softer than that of men's : but 
 they have not the same strength of nerve, of un- 
 derstanding, or of moral purpose. 
 
 CCCXXI. 
 
 In France knowledge circulates quickly, from 
 the mere communicativeness of the national dis- 
 position. Whatever is once discovered, be it 
 good or bad, is made no secret of; but is spread 
 quickly through all ranks and classes of society. 
 Thousfht then runs alonsf the surface of the mind
 
 116 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 like an electrical fluid ; while the English un- 
 derstanding is a non-conductor to it, and damps 
 it with its torpedo touch. 
 
 cccxxii. 
 
 The French are fond of reading as well as of 
 talking. You may constantly see girls tending 
 an apple-stall in the coldest day in winter, and 
 reading Voltaire or Racine. Such a thing was 
 never known in London as a barrow-woman 
 reading Shakespear. Yet we talk of our wide- 
 spread civilization, and ample provisions for the 
 education of the poor. 
 
 CCCXXIII. 
 
 In comparing notes with the French, we can- 
 not boast even of our superior conceit ; for in 
 that too they have the advantage of us. 
 
 CCCXXIV. 
 
 It is curious that the French, with all their vi- 
 vacity and love of external splendour, should to- 
 lerate nothing but their prosing, didactic style of 
 tragedy on the stage ; and that with all their 
 flutter and levity they should combine the most 
 laborious patience and minute finishing in works 
 of art. A French student will take several weeks
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 117 
 
 to complete a chalk-drawing from a head of Leo- 
 nardo da Vinci, which a dull, plodding English- 
 man would strike off in as many hours. 
 
 cccxxv. 
 
 The Dutch perhaps finished their landscapes 
 
 so carefully, because there was a want of romantic 
 
 and striking objects in them, so that they could 
 
 only be made interesting by the accuracy of the 
 
 details. 
 
 cccxxvi. 
 
 An awkward Englishman has an advantage 
 in going abroad. Instead of having his defi- 
 ciency more remarked, it is less so ; for all En- 
 glishmen are thought awkward alike. Any slip 
 in politeness or abruptness of address is attri- 
 buted to an ignorance of foreign manners, and 
 you escape under the cover of the national cha- 
 racter. Your behaviour is no more criticised 
 than your accent. They consider the barbarism 
 of either as a compliment to their own superior 
 refinement. 
 
 CCCXXVII. 
 
 The difference between minuteness and sub- 
 tlety or refinement seems to be this — that the 
 one relates to the parts, and the other to the 
 whole. Thus, the accumulation of a number
 
 118 CHARACTERISTICS, 
 
 of distinct particulars in a work, as the threads 
 of a gold-laced button-hole, or the hairs on the 
 chin in a portrait of Denner's, is minute or high 
 finishing : the giving the gradations of tone in a 
 sky of Claude's from azure to gold, where the 
 distinction at each step is imperceptible, but the 
 whole effect is striking and grand, and can only be 
 seized upon by the eye of taste, is true refinement 
 and delicacy. 
 
 CCCXXVIII. 
 
 The forte of the French is a certain facility 
 and grace of execution. The Germans, who 
 are the opposite to them, are full of throes and 
 labour, and do every thing by an overstrained 
 and violent effort. 
 
 cccxxix. 
 
 The conversation of a pedantic Scotchman is 
 like a canal with a great number of locks in it. 
 
 cccxxx. 
 
 The most learned are often the most narrow- 
 minded men. 
 
 cccxxxi. 
 
 The insolence of the vulgar is in proportion 
 to their ignorance. They treat every thing with 
 contempt, which they do not understand.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 119 
 
 CCCXXXIl. 
 
 Our contempt for others proves nothing but 
 the ilUberahty and narrowness of our own views. 
 The Enghsh laugh at foreigners, because, from 
 their insular situation, they are unacquainted 
 with the manners and customs of the rest of the 
 world. 
 
 CCCXXXIII. 
 
 The true barbarian is he who thinks every 
 thing barbarous but his own tastes and preju- 
 dices. 
 
 CCCXXXIV. 
 
 The difference between the vanity of a French- 
 man and an Englishman seems to be this — the 
 one thinks every thing right that is French, the 
 other thinks every thing wrong that is not Eng- 
 lish. The Frenchman is satisfied with his own 
 country; the Englishman is determined to pick a 
 quarrel with every other. 
 
 CCCXXXV. 
 
 The national precedence between the English 
 and Scotch maybe settled by this, that the Scotch 
 are always asserting their superiority over the 
 English, while the English never say a word 
 about their superiority over the Scotch. The
 
 120 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 first have got together a great number of facts 
 and arguments in their own favour; the last 
 never trouble their heads about the matter, but 
 have taken the point for granted as self-evi- 
 dent. 
 
 cccxxxvi. 
 
 The great characteristic of the Scotch is that 
 of all semi-barbarous people, namely, a hard de- 
 fiance of other nations. 
 
 cccxxxvii. 
 
 Those who are tenacious on the score of their 
 faults shew that they have no virtues to bring 
 as a set-ofF against them. 
 
 CCCXXXVIII. 
 
 An Englishman in Scotland seems to be tra- 
 velling in a conquered country, from the suspi- 
 cion and precautions which he has to encounter ; 
 and this is really the history of the case. 
 
 CCCXXXIX. 
 
 We learn a great deal from coming into con- 
 tact and collision with individuals of other na- 
 tions. The contrast of character and feeUng — 
 the different point of view from which they see
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 121 
 
 things — is an admirable test of the truth or rea- 
 sonableness of our opinions. Among ourselves 
 we take a number of things for granted, which, 
 as soon as we find ourselves with strangers, we 
 are called upon to account for. With those who 
 think and feel differently from our habitual tone, 
 we must have a reason for the faith that is in us, 
 or we shall not come off very triumphantly. By 
 this comparing of notes, by being questioned 
 and cross-examined, we discover how far we 
 have taken up certain notions on good grounds, 
 or barely on trust. We also learn how much 
 of our best knowledge is built on a sort of ac- 
 quired instinct, and how little we can analyze 
 those things that seem to us most self-evident, 
 He is no mean philosopher who can give a rea- 
 son for one half of what he thinks. It by no means 
 follows that our tastes or judgments are wrong, 
 because we may be at fault in an argument. 
 A Scotchman and a Frenchman would differ 
 equally from an Englishman, but would run 
 into contrary extremes. He might not be able 
 to make good his ground against the levity of the 
 one or the pertinacity of the other, and yet he 
 might be right, for they cannot both be so. 
 By visiting different countries and conversing 
 
 M
 
 122 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 with their inhabitants, we strike a balance be- 
 tween opposite prejudices, and have an average 
 of truth and nature left. 
 
 CCCXL. 
 
 Strength of character as well as strength of 
 understanding is one of the guides that point 
 the way to truth. By seeing the bias and pre- 
 judices of others marked in a strong and decided 
 manner, we are led to detect our own — from 
 laughing at their absurdities, we begin to sus- 
 pect the soundness of our own conclusions, 
 which we find to be just the reverse of them. 
 When I was in Scotland some time ago, I learnt 
 most from the person, whose opinions were not 
 most right (as I conceive) but most Scotch. In 
 this case, as in playing a game at bowls, you 
 have only to allow for a certain bias in order to 
 hit the Jack : or, as in an algebraic equation, 
 you deduct so much for national character and 
 prejudice, which is a known or given quantity, 
 and what remains is the truth. 
 
 CCCXLI. 
 
 We learn Uttle from mere captious contro- 
 versy, or the collision of opinions, unless where 
 there is this collision of character to account for
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 123 
 
 the difference, and remind one, by implication, 
 where one's own weakness lies. In the latter 
 case, it is a shrewd presumption that inasmuch 
 as others are wrong, so are we : for the widest 
 breach in argument is made by mutual prejudice. 
 
 CCCXLII. 
 
 There are certain moulds of national charac- 
 ter, in which all our opinions and feelings must 
 be cast, or they are spurious and vitiated. A 
 Frenchman and an Englishman, a Scotchman 
 and an Irishman, seldom reason alike on any two 
 points consecutively. It is in vain to think of 
 reconciling these antipathies : they are some- 
 thing in the juices and the blood. It is not 
 possible for a Frenchman to admire Shake- 
 spear, except out of mere affectation : nor is it 
 at all necessary that he should, while he has au- 
 thors of his own to admire. But then his not 
 admiring Shakespear is no reason why we should 
 not. The harm is not in the natural variety of 
 tastes and dispositions, but in setting up an arti- 
 ficial standard of uniformity, which makes us 
 dissatisfied with our own opinions, unless we 
 can make them universal, or impose them as a 
 law upon the world at large.
 
 124 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCXLIII. 
 
 I had rather be a lord than a king. A lord 
 is a private gentleman of the first class, amenable 
 only to himself. A king is a servant of the pub- 
 lic, dependent on opinion, a subject for history, 
 and hable to be " baited with the rabble's curse." 
 Such a situation is no sinecure. Kings indeed 
 w^ere gentlemen, when their subjects were vas- 
 sals, and the world (instead of a stage on which 
 they have to perform a difficult and stubborn 
 part) was a deer-park, through which they ranged 
 at pleasure. But the case is altered of late, and 
 it is better and has more of the sense of personal 
 dignity in it to come into possession of a large 
 old family-estate and " ancestral" groves, than 
 to have a kingdom to govern — ^or to lose. 
 
 CCCXLIV. 
 
 The affectation of gentility by people without 
 birth or fortune is a very idle species of vanity. 
 For those who are in middle or humble life to 
 aspire to be always seen in the company of the 
 great is like the ambition of a dwarf who should 
 hire himself as an attendant to wait upon a 
 giant. But we find great numbers of this class 
 — whose pride or vanity seems to be sufficiently
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 125 
 
 gratified by the admiration of the finery or su- 
 periority of others, without any farther object. 
 There are sycophants who take a pride in being 
 seen in the train of a great man, as there are 
 fops who dehght to follow in the train of a 
 beautiful woman (from a mere impulse of admi- 
 ration and excitement of the imagination) with- 
 out the smallest personal pretensions of their 
 own. 
 
 CCCXLV. 
 
 There is a double aristocracy of rank and let- 
 ters, which is hardly to be endured — monstrum 
 ingens, biforme. A lord, who is a poet as well, 
 regards the House of Peers with contempt as a 
 set of dull fellows; and he considers his brother 
 authors as a Grub-street crew. A king is hardly 
 good enough for him to touch : a mere man of 
 genius is no better than a worm. He alone is 
 all-accomplished. Such people should be sent 
 to Coventry ; and they generally are so, through 
 their insufferable pride and self-sufficiency. 
 
 CCCXLVI. 
 
 The great are fond of patronising men of ge- 
 nius, when they are remarkable for personal in- 
 significance, so that they can dandle them like 
 M 3
 
 126 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 parroquets or lap-dogs, or when they are dis- 
 tinguished by some awkwardness which they 
 can laugh at, or some meanness which they can 
 despise. They do not wish to encourage or 
 shew their respect for wisdom or virtue, but to 
 witness the defects or ridiculous circumstances 
 accompanying these, that they may have an ex- 
 cuse for treating all sterling pretensions with su- 
 percilious indifference. They seek at best to 
 be amused, not to be instructed. Truth is the 
 greatest impertinence a man can be guilty of in 
 polite company ; and players and buffoons are 
 the beau ideal of men of wit and talents. 
 
 CCCXLVII. 
 
 We do not see nature, merely from looking 
 at it. We fancy that we see the whole of any 
 object that is before us, because we know no 
 more of it than what we see. The rest escapes 
 us, as a matter of course ; and we easily conclude 
 that the idea in our minds and the image in na- 
 ture are one and the same. But in fact we only 
 see a very small part of nature, and make an 
 imperfect abstraction of the infinite number of 
 particulars, which are always to be found in it, as 
 well as we can. Some do this with more or less 
 accuracy than others, according to habit or natu-
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 127 
 
 ral genius. A painter, for instance, who has been 
 working on a face for several days, still finds out 
 something new in it which he did not notice be- 
 fore, and which he endeavours to give in order to 
 make his copy more perfect, which shews how 
 little an ordinary and unpractised eye can be 
 supposed to comprehend the whole at a single 
 glance. A young artist, when he first begins to 
 study from nature, soon makes an end of his 
 sketch, because he sees only a general outline 
 and certain gross distinctions and masses. As he 
 proceeds, a new field opens to him ; differences 
 crowd upon differences ; and as his perceptions 
 grow more refined, he could employ whole days 
 in working upon a single part, without satisfy- 
 ing himself at last. No painter, after a life de- 
 voted to the art and the greatest care and length 
 of time given to a single study of a head or other 
 object, ever succeeded in it to his wish or did 
 not leave something still to be done. The 
 greatest artists that have ever appeared are 
 those who have been able to embody some one 
 view or aspect of nature, and no more. Thus 
 Titian was famous for colouring ; Raphael for 
 drawing; Correggio for the gradations, Rem- 
 brandt for the extremes of light and shade.
 
 128 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 The combined genius and powers of observa- 
 tion of all the great artists in the world would 
 not be sufficient to convey the whole of what 
 is contained in any one object in nature ; and 
 yet the most vulgar spectator thinks he sees 
 the whole of what is before him, at once and 
 without any trouble at all. 
 
 CCCXLVIII. 
 
 A copy is never so good as an original. This 
 would not be the case indeed, if great painters 
 were in the habit of copying bad pictures ; but 
 as the contrary practice holds, it follows that 
 the excellent parts of a fine picture must lose in 
 the imitation, and the indifferent pares will not 
 be proportionably improved by any thing sub- 
 stituted at a venture for them. 
 
 CCCXLIX. 
 
 The greatest painters are those who have 
 combined the finest general effect with the 
 highest degree of delicacy and correctness of 
 detail. It is a mistake that the introduction of 
 the parts interferes or is incompatible with the 
 effect of the whole. Both are to be found in 
 nature. The most finished works of the most 
 renowned artists are also the best.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 129 
 
 CCCL. 
 
 We are not weaned from a misplaced attach- 
 ment, by (at last) discovering the unworthiness 
 of the object. The character of a woman is 
 one thing ; her graces and attractions another ; 
 and these last acquire even an additional charm 
 and piquancy from the disappointment we feel 
 in other respects. The truth is, a man in love 
 prefers his passion to every other consideration, 
 and is fonder of his mistress than he is of virtue. 
 Should she prove vicious, she makes vice lovely 
 in his eyes. 
 
 CCCLI. 
 
 An accomplished coquet excites the passions 
 of others, in proportion as she feels none her- 
 self. Her forwardness allures, her indifference 
 irritates desire. She fans the flame that does 
 not scorch her own bosom ; plays with men's 
 feelings, and studies the effect of her several 
 arts, at leisure and unmoved. 
 
 CCCLII. 
 
 Grace in women is the secret charm, that 
 draws the soul into its circle, and binds a spell 
 round it forever. The reason of which is, that 
 habitual grace miplies a continual sense of de-
 
 130 CHARACTERISTICS, 
 
 light, of ease and propriety, which nothing can 
 interrupt, ever varying, and adapting itself to 
 all circumstances alike. 
 
 CCCLIII. 
 
 Even among the most abandoned of the sex, 
 there is generally found to exist one strong and 
 individual attachment, which remains unshaken 
 through all circumstances. Virtue steals, like 
 a guilty thing, into the secret haunts of vice and 
 infamy, clings to their devoted victim, and will 
 not be driven quite away. Nothing can destroy 
 the human heart 
 
 CCCLIV. 
 
 There is a heroism in crime as well as in vir- 
 tue. Vice and infamy have their altars and 
 their religion. This makes nothing in their fa- 
 vour, but is a proud compliment to man's na- 
 ture. Wliatever he is or does, he cannot en- 
 tirely efface the stamp of the Divinity on him. 
 Let him strive ever so, he cannot divest himself 
 of his natural sublimity of thought and affection, 
 however he may pervert or deprave it to ill. 
 
 CCCLV. 
 
 We judge of character too much from names
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 131 
 
 and ^classes, and modes of life. It alters very 
 little with circumstances. The theological doc- 
 trines of Original Sin, of Grace, and Election, 
 admit of a moral and natural solution. Out- 
 ward acts or events hardly reach the inward dis- 
 position or fitness for good or evil. Humanity 
 is to be met with in a den of robbers, nay, mo- 
 desty in a brothel. Nature prevails, and vindi- 
 cates its rights to the last. 
 
 CCCLVI. 
 
 Women do not become abandoned v,'ith the 
 mere loss of character. They only discover the 
 vicious propensities, which they before were 
 bound to conceal. They do not (all at once) 
 part with their virtue, but throw aside the veil 
 of affectation and prudery. 
 
 CCCLVII. 
 
 It is enough to satisfy ambition to excel in 
 some one thing. In every thing else, one would 
 wish to be a common man. Those who aim at 
 every kind of distinction turn out mere preten- 
 ders and coxcombs. One of the ancients has 
 said that "the wisest and most accompUshed man 
 is like the statues of the Gods placed against a
 
 132 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 wall — in front an Apollo or a Mercury, behind 
 a plain piece of marble." 
 
 CCCLVIII. 
 
 The want of money, according to the poet, 
 has the effect of making men ridiculous. It not 
 only has this disadvantage with respect to our- 
 selves, but it often shews us others in a very con- 
 temptible point of view. If we sink in the opi- 
 nion of the world from adverse circumstances, 
 the world is apt to sink equally in ours. Po- 
 verty is the test of civiUty and the touchstone 
 of friendship. 
 
 CCCLIX. 
 
 There are those who borrow money, in or- 
 der to lend it again. This is raising a charac- 
 ter for generosity at an easy rate. 
 
 CCCLX. 
 
 The secret of the difficulties of those people, 
 who make a great deal of money, and yet are 
 always in want of it, is this — they throw it away 
 as soon as they get it on the first whim or ex- 
 travagance that strikes them, and have nothing 
 left to meet ordinary expenses or discharge old 
 debts.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 133 
 
 CCCLXI. 
 
 Those who have the habit of being generous 
 before they are just, fancy they are getting out 
 of difRcuUies all their lives, because it is in their 
 power to do so, whenever they will ; and for this 
 reason they go on in the same way to the last, 
 because the time never comes for baulking their 
 inclinations or breaking off a bad habit. 
 
 CCCLXII. 
 
 It is a mistake that we court the society of 
 the rich and great, merely with a view to what 
 we can obtain from them. We do so, because 
 there is something in external rank and splen- 
 dour that gratifies and imposes on the imagi- 
 nation, just as we prefer the company of those 
 who are in good health and spirits to that of 
 the sickly and hypochondriacal, or as we would 
 rather converse with a beautiful woman than 
 with an ugly one. 
 
 CCCLXIII. 
 
 Shakespeare says, " Men's judgments are a 
 parcel of their fortunes." A person in de- 
 pressed circumstances is not only not listened 
 to— he has not the spirit to say a good thing. 
 
 N
 
 134 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCLXIV. 
 
 We are very much what others think of tis. 
 The reception our observations meet with, gives 
 us courage to proceed or damps our efforts. 
 A man is a wit and a philosopher in one place, 
 who dares not open his mouth and is considered 
 as a blockhead in another. In some companies 
 nothing vvill go down but coarse practical jests, 
 while the finest remark or sarcasm would be 
 disregarded. 
 
 CCCLXV. 
 
 Men of talent rise with their company, and 
 are brought out by the occasion. Coxcombs 
 and pedants have no advantage but over the dull 
 and ignorant, with whom they talk on by rote. 
 
 CCCLXVI. 
 
 In France or abroad one feels one's-self at a 
 loss ; but then one has an excuse ready in an ig- 
 norance of the language. In Scotland they 
 speak the same language, but do not understand 
 a word that you say. One cannot get on in so- 
 ciety, without ideas in common. To attempt to 
 convert strangers to your notions, or to alter 
 their whole way of thinking in a short stay among 
 them, is indeed making a toil of a pleasure, and
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 135 
 
 enemies of those who may be inchned to be 
 friends. 
 
 CCCLXVII. 
 
 In some situations, if you say nothing, you 
 are called dull ; if you talk, you are thought im- 
 pertinent or arrogant. It is hard to know what 
 to do in this case. The question seems to be, 
 whether your vanity or your prudence predo- 
 minates. 
 
 CCCLXVIII. 
 
 One has sometimes no other way of escaping 
 from a sense of insignificance, but by offending 
 the self-love of others. We should recollect, 
 however, that good manners are indispensable 
 at all times and places, whereas no one is bound 
 to make a figure, at the expense of propriety. 
 
 CCCLXIX. 
 
 People sometimes complain that you do not 
 talk, when they have not given you an opportu- 
 nity to utter a word for a whole evening. The 
 real ground of disappointment has been, that 
 you have not^shewn a sufficient degree of atten- 
 tion to what they have said. 
 
 CCCLXX. 
 
 I can listen with patience to the dullest or
 
 136 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 or emptiest companion in the world, if he does 
 not require me to do any thing more than Usten. 
 
 CCCLXXI. 
 
 Wit is the rarest quahty to be met with among 
 people of education, and the most common among 
 the uneducated. 
 
 CCCLXXII. 
 
 Are we to infer from this, that wit is a vulgar 
 faculty, or that people of education are propor- 
 tionably deficient in livehness and spirit ? 
 
 CCCLXXIII. 
 
 We seldom hear and seldomer make a witty 
 remark. Yet we read nothing else in Con- 
 greve's plays. 
 
 CCCLXXIV. 
 
 Those who object to wit, are envious of it. 
 
 CCCLXXV. 
 
 The persons who make the greatest outcry 
 against bad puns, are the very same who also 
 find fault with good ones. A bad pun at least 
 generally leads to a wise remark — that it is a 
 bad one.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 137 
 
 CCCLXXVI. 
 
 A grave blockhead should always go about 
 \rith a lively one — they shew one another off to 
 the best advantage. 
 
 CCCLXXVII. 
 
 A Uvely blockhead in company is a public be- 
 nefit. Silence or dulness by the side of folly 
 looks like wisdom. 
 
 cccLxxviir. 
 
 It is not easy to write Essays Uke Montaigne, 
 nor Maxims in the manner of the Duke de la 
 Rochefoucault. 
 
 CCCLXXIX. 
 
 The most perfect style of writing may be that, 
 which treats strictly and methodically of a given 
 subject ; the most amusing (if not the most in- 
 structive) is that, which mixes up the personal 
 character of the author with general reflection. 
 
 CCCLXXX. 
 
 The seat of knowledge is in the head ; of wis- 
 dom, in the heart. We are sure to judge wrong, 
 if we do not feel right. 
 
 n3
 
 138 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCLXXXI. 
 
 He who exercises a constant independence of 
 spirit, and yet seldom gives offence by the free- 
 dom of his opinions, may be presumed to have 
 a well-regulated mind. 
 
 CCCLXXXIl. 
 
 There are those who never offend by never 
 speaking their minds ; as there are others who 
 blurt out a thousand exceptionable things with- 
 out intending it, and because they are actuated 
 by no feelings of personal enmity towards any 
 one. 
 
 CCCLXXXIII. 
 
 Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. 
 It often happens that the better part of discre- 
 tion is valour. 
 
 CCCLXXXIV. 
 
 Mental cowards are afraid of expressing a 
 strong opinion, or of striking hard, lest the blow 
 should be retaliated. They throw themselves 
 on the forbearance of their antagonists, and 
 hope for impunity in their insignificance. 
 
 CCCLXXXV. 
 
 No one ever gained a good word from friend
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. ino 
 
 or foe, from man or woman, by want of spirit. 
 The public know how to distinguish between 
 a contempt for tliemselves and the fear of an 
 adversary. 
 
 CCCLXXXVI. 
 
 Never be afraid of attacking a bully. 
 
 CCCLXXXVII. 
 
 An honest man speaks truth, though it may 
 give offence ; a vain man, in order that it may. 
 
 CCCLXXXVIII. 
 
 Those only deserve a monument who do not 
 need one; that is, who have raised themselves 
 a monument in the minds and memories of men. 
 
 CCCLXXXIX. 
 
 Fame is the inheritance not of the dead, but 
 of the living. It is we who look back with lofty 
 pride to the great names of antiquity, who drink 
 of that flood of glory as of a river, and refresh 
 our wings in it for future flight. 
 
 cccxc. 
 
 The inhabitant of a metropolis is apt to think 
 this circumstance alone gives liim a decided su-
 
 140 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 periority over every one else, and does not im- 
 prove that natural advantage so much as he 
 ought. 
 
 CCCXCI. 
 
 A true-bred cockney fancies his having been 
 born in London is a receipt in full for every 
 other species of merit. He belongs, in his own 
 opinion, to a privileged class. 
 
 CCCXCIT. 
 
 The number of objects we see from living in 
 a large city amuses the mind Uke a perpetual 
 raree-show, without supplying it with any ideas. 
 The understanding thus becomes habitually me- 
 chanical and superficial. 
 
 cccxciii. 
 
 In proportion to the number of persons we 
 see, we forget that we know less of mankind. 
 
 cccxciv. 
 
 Pertness and conceit are the characteristics 
 of a true cockney. He feels little respect for 
 the greatest things from the opportunity of see- 
 ing them often and without trouble ; and at the 
 same time entertains a high opinion of himself
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 141 
 
 from his familiarity with them. He who has 
 seen all the great actors, the great public cha- 
 racters, the chief public buildings, and the other 
 wonders of the metropolis, thinks less of them 
 from this circumstance ; but conceives a prodi- 
 gious contempt for all those who have not seen 
 
 what he has. 
 
 cccxcv. 
 
 The confined air of a metropolis is hurtful to 
 the minds and bodies of those who have never 
 lived out of it. It is impure, stagnant — without 
 breathing-space to allow a larger view of our- 
 selves or others — and gives birth to a puny, 
 sickly, unwholesome, and degenerate race of 
 
 beings. 
 
 cccxcvi. 
 
 Those who from a constant change and dissi- 
 pation of outward objects have not a moment's 
 leisure left for their own thoughts, can feel no 
 respect for themselves, and learn little consi- 
 deration for humanity. 
 
 CCCXCVII. 
 
 Profound hypocrisy is inconsistent with va- 
 nity : for the last would betray our designs by 
 some premature triumph. Indeed, vanity im-
 
 142 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 plies a sympathy with others, and consummate 
 hypocrisy is built on a total want of it. 
 
 CCCXCVIII. 
 
 A hypocrite despises those whom he deceives, 
 but has no respect for himself. He would make 
 a dupe of himself too, if he could. 
 
 cccxcix. 
 There is a degree of selfishness so complete, 
 that it does not feel the natural emotions of re- 
 sentment, contempt, &c. against those who have 
 done all they could to provoke them. Every 
 thing but itself is a matter of perfect indifference 
 to it. It feels towards others no more than if 
 they were of a different species ; and inflicts 
 torture or imparts delight, itself unmoved and 
 
 immoveable. 
 
 cccc. 
 
 Egotism is an infirmity that perpetually grows 
 upon a man, till at last he cannot bear to think 
 of any thing but himself, or even to suppose 
 that others do. 
 
 COCCI. 
 
 He will never have true friends who is afraid 
 of making enemies.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 143 
 
 ccccir. 
 
 The way to procure insults is to submit to 
 them. A man meets with no more respect than 
 he exacts. 
 
 CCCCIII. 
 
 Wliat puts the baseness of mankind in the 
 strongest point of view is, that the}' avoid those 
 who are in misfortune, instead of countenancing 
 or assisting them. They anticipate the increased 
 demand on their sympathy or bounty, and escape 
 from it as from a falling house. 
 
 cccciv. 
 
 Death puts an end to rivalship and competi- 
 tion. The dead can boast no advantage over 
 us ; nor can we triumph over them, 
 
 ccccv. 
 
 We judge of an author by the quahty, not 
 the quantity of his productions. Unless we add 
 as much to our reputation by a second attempt 
 as we did by our first, we disappoint expectation, 
 and lose ground with the public. Those there- 
 fore who have done the least have often the 
 greatest reputation. The Author of Waverley
 
 144 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 has not risen in public estimation by the extreme 
 voluminousness of his writings ; for it seems as if 
 that which is done so continually could not be 
 very difficult to do, and that there is some trick 
 or knack in it. The miracle ceases with the re- 
 petition! The Pleasures of Hope and the Plea- 
 sures of Memory, on the contrary, stand alone 
 and increase in value, because they seem unri- 
 valled and inimitable even by the authors them- 
 selves. An economy of expenditure is the way 
 to grow rich in fame, as well as in other pur- 
 suits. 
 
 ccccvi. 
 
 It is better to drink of deep griefs than to 
 taste shallow pleasures. 
 
 CCCCVII. 
 
 Those who can command themselves, com- 
 mand others. 
 
 CCCCVIIl. 
 
 A surfeit of admiration or friendship often 
 ends in an indifference v.orse than hatred or 
 contempt. It is not a lively perception of faults, 
 but a sickly distaste to the very idea of the per- 
 son formerly esteemed, a palling of the imagi- 
 nation, or a conscious inertness and inability to
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 145 
 
 revive certain feelings — a state from which the 
 
 mind shrinks with greater repugnance than from 
 
 any other. 
 
 ccccix. 
 
 The last pleasure in life is the sense of dis- 
 charging our duty. 
 
 ccccx. 
 
 Those people who are fond of giving trou- 
 ble, like to take it ; just as those who pay no 
 attention to the comforts of others, are gene- 
 rally indifferent to their own. We are governed 
 by sympathy ; and the extent of our sympathy 
 .is determined by that of our sensibiHty. 
 
 ccccxi. 
 No one is idle, who can do any thing. 
 
 CCCCXII. 
 
 Friendship is cemented by interest, vanity, or 
 the want of amusement : it seldom implies es- 
 teem, or even mutual regard. 
 
 CCCCXIII. 
 
 Some persons make promises for tlie plea- 
 sure of breaking them.
 
 14G CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCCXIV. 
 
 Praise is no match for blame and obloqviy. 
 For, were the scales even, the malice of man- 
 kind would throw in the casting-weight. 
 
 ccccxv. 
 
 The safest kind of praise is to foretel that 
 another will become great in some particular 
 way. It has the greatest shew of magnanimity, 
 and the least of it in reality. We are not jea- 
 lous of dormant merit, which nobody recog- 
 nizes but ourselves, and which in proportion as 
 it developes itself, demonstrates our sagacity. 
 If our prediction fails, it is forgotten ; and if it 
 proves true, we may then set up for pro- 
 phets. 
 
 ccccxvi. 
 
 Men of genius do not excel in any profession 
 because they labour in it, but they labour in it, 
 because they excel. 
 
 CCCCXVII. 
 
 Vice is man's nature : virtue is a habit — or a 
 mask. 
 
 CCCCXVIII. 
 
 The foregoing maxim shews the difference 
 between truth and sarcasm.
 
 CHARACTER TSTICS. 117 
 
 ExaltCil station pvoi'liulos ovimj tho t^xorciso 
 of natural affection, ninoh uumo of I'onimon hu- 
 m-Muiy. 
 
 ccccw. 
 
 \\c ioY tho t\u>s( part strivi^ to iv<;nlM(o ouv 
 actions, not so much by ('onsfiiMu-t^ or reason, as 
 by (be opinion of ibo world. Hiil h// t/ir world 
 wo moan (boso wbt^ ontcMtainan »)pinion abi>nt 
 us. Now, tbis cirilt> >arios i>\coo(Hnoly. but 
 never expresses move tban a ]>art. In senates, 
 in camps, in town, in coinitry, in courts, in a pri- 
 son, a man's vices and virtm^s are wei-ibeil in a 
 separate scale by (bt>s»Mvbi> know bim, and \\\\o 
 have similar leelinus and ]Mnsuits. ^^ e care 
 about no otluM- opinion. TbiMO is a moral Im- 
 rizonwbicb bounds onrvio\\, ami lu-yond wbicb 
 the rest is air. Tbe public is dividi'd into a 
 number of distinct jurisdictions \'ov diiVcrcnt 
 claims ; and posterity is but a name, even to 
 those who sometimes drean\ ol' it. 
 
 ccccxxi. 
 
 We can bear lo lu> ilepri\t'd of every tinni;; 
 but our self-conciit.
 
 148 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCCXXIl. 
 
 Those who are fond of setting things to rights, 
 have no great objection to seeing them wrong. 
 There is often a good deal of spleen at the bot- 
 tom of benevolence. 
 
 ccccxxiir. 
 
 The reputation of science which ought to be 
 the most lasting, as synonymous with truth, is 
 often the least so. One discovery supersedes 
 another ; and the progress of light throws the 
 past into obscurity. What is become of the 
 Blacks, the Lavoisiers, the Priestleys, in che- 
 mistry ? In political economy, Adam Smith is 
 laid on the shelf, and Davenant and De Witt 
 have given place to the Says, the Ricardos, the 
 Malthuses, and the Macullochs. These per- 
 sons are happy in one respect — they have a 
 sovereign contempt for all who have gone before 
 them, and never dream of those who are to 
 come after them and usurp their place. When 
 any set of men think theirs the only science 
 worth studying, and themselves the only infal- 
 lible persons in it, it is a sign how frail the 
 traces are of past excellence in it, and how little 
 connection it has with the general affairs of hu~
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 149 
 
 man life. In proportion to the profundity of 
 
 any inquiry, is its futility. The most important 
 
 and lasting truths are the most obvious ones. 
 
 Nature cheats us with her mysteries, one after 
 
 another, like a juggler with his tricks ; but shews 
 
 us her plain honest face, without our paying 
 
 for it. The understanding only blunders more or 
 
 less in trying to find out what things are in 
 
 themselves : the heart judges at once of its own 
 
 feelings and impressions; and these are true 
 
 and the same. 
 
 ccccxxiv. 
 
 Scholastic divinity was of use in its day, by af- 
 fording exercise to the mind of man. Astro- 
 logy, and the finding out the philosopher's stone, 
 answered the same purpose. If we had not 
 something to doubt, to dispute and quarrel 
 about, we should be at a loss what to do with 
 
 our time. 
 
 ccccxxv. 
 
 The multitude who require to be led, still 
 hate their leaders. 
 
 CCCCXXVI. 
 
 It has been said that any man may have any 
 woman.
 
 150 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 CCCCXXVII. 
 
 Many people are infatuated with ill-success, 
 and reduced to despair by a lucky turn in 
 their favour. While all goes well, they are 
 likejish out of water. They have no confidence 
 or sympathy with their good fortune, and look 
 upon it as a momentary delusion. Let a doubt 
 be thrown on the question, and they begin to 
 be full of lively apprehensions again; let all 
 their hopes vanish, and they feel themselves on 
 firm ground once more. From want of spirit or 
 of habit, their imaginations cannot rise from 
 the low ground of humility, cannot reflect the 
 gay, flaunting colours of the rainbow, flag and 
 droop into despondency, and can neither in- 
 dulge the expectation, nor employ the means of 
 success. Even when it is within their reach, 
 they dare not lay hands upon it, and shrink from 
 unlooked-for prosperity, as something of which 
 they are ashamed and unworthy. The class of 
 croakers here spoken of are less deUghted at 
 other people's misfortunes than at their own. 
 Querulous complaints and anticipations of fai- 
 lure are the food on which they live, and they at 
 last acquire a passion for that which is the favou- 
 rite subject of their thoughts and conversation.
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 151 
 
 CCCCXXVIII. 
 
 There are some persons who never succeed, 
 from being too indolent to undertake any thing ; 
 and others who regularly fail, because the in- 
 stant they find success in their power, they 
 grow indifferent, and give over the attempt. 
 
 ccccxxix. 
 
 To be remembered after we are dead, is but a 
 poor recompense for being treated with contempt 
 while we are living. 
 
 ccccxxx. 
 Mankind are so ready to bestow their admira- 
 tion on the dead, because the latter do not hear 
 it, or because it gives no pleasure to the objects 
 of it. Even fame is the offspring of envy. 
 
 ccccxxxi. 
 
 Truth is not one, but many ; and an obser- 
 vation may be true in itself, that contradicts 
 another equally true, according to the point of 
 view from which we contemplate the subject. 
 
 ccccxxxii. 
 Much intellect is not an advantage in court-
 
 153 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 ship. General topics interfere with particular 
 attentions. A man to be successful in love, 
 should think only of himself and his mistress. 
 Rochefoucault observes, that lovers are never 
 tired of each other's company, because they are 
 always talking of themselves. 
 
 CCCCXXXIII. 
 
 The best kind of oratory or argument is not 
 
 that which is most Hkely to succeed with any 
 
 particular person. In the latter case, we must 
 
 avail ourselves of our knowledge of individual 
 
 circumstances and character : in the former, we 
 
 must be guided by general rules and calcula- 
 
 tions. 
 
 ccccxxxiv. 
 
 The picture of the Misers, by Quintin Matsys, 
 seems to proceed upon a wrong idea. It repre- 
 sents two persons of this description engaged 
 and delighted with the mutual contemplation of 
 their wealth. But avarice is not a social pas- 
 sion ; and the true miser should retire into his 
 cell to gloat over his treasures alone, without 
 sympathy or observation. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 J. M'Cteery, Tooks-Ck)urt> 
 Cbaacery-Lwej London.
 
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