1830.] Aphorism* on Man. 575 



defect or inferiority, this is certain, he will keep it in the back-ground 

 If a chimney-sweeper or scavenger had a ticket to a ball, would he go ? 

 Oh ! no ; it is enough to bear the sense of our own infirmity and dis- 

 grace in silence, and unnoticed, without having it wrought to agony by 

 the glare of contrast and ostentation of insult ! What linendraper or 

 grocer's son would dine with a prince every day though he might, to 

 be crushed into insignificance, and stifled with ironical civility? Do 

 we not observe the difficulty there is in making servants and mechanics 

 sit down, or keep on their hats in speaking to their betters, for fear of 

 being thought to encroach, and made liable to a rebuff in consequence ? 

 Assuredly, then, the great may throw open their palace- doors and gal- 

 leries of art without having to dread the inroad or outrages of the mob, 

 or fancying that any one will go who is not qualified to appear, or will 

 not come away with his mind and manners improved. The wooden shoes 

 and mob caps in the Louvre or the Vatican do no harm to the pictures 

 on the walls : but add a new interest to them, and throw a pleasing light 

 on human nature. If we are behind other nations in politeness and 

 civilization, the best way to overtake them is to tread in their steps. 



XXIV. 



It is at the same time true that familiarity breeds contempt; or that the 

 vulgar, if admitted to an intimacy and footing of equality, try to make 

 you feel all your defects, and to pay for the superiority you have so long 

 usurped over them. The same pride that before kept them at a dis- 

 tance makes them ready to throw down any barrier of deference or dis- 

 tinction the moment they can do so with impunity. No one willingly 

 admits a superiority in another ; or does not secretly prefer himself to 

 the whole universe beside. The slave would kill the tyrant, whose feet 

 he kisses ; and there is no Turk so loyal that he would not cut off the 

 head of the best of Sultans, if he was sure of putting the diadem upon 

 his own. 



XXV. 



The strongest minds are governed more by appearances than by a 

 regard to consequences. Those who pretend to be the greatest calcu- 

 lators of their own interest, or the main chance, are the very slaves of 

 opinion, and dupes of shallow pretension. They are often so mad in 

 this respect, that they think neither better nor worse of the oldest friend 

 they have in the world than the first person they happen to be in com- 

 pany with does, or the last rumour they heard gives him out. Their 

 circumspection amounts to looking three ways at once, and missing the 

 right point of view at last. They would rather speak to a well-dressed 

 fool in the street than to the wisest man in a thread-bare suit. I know 

 an author who succeeds with a set of second-hand thoughts by having 

 a coat of the newest cut ; and an editor, who flourishes about the town 

 in virtue of a pair of green spectacles. Lay out all you are worth in 

 decking out the person of a vulgar woman, and she will cut you in the 

 very finery you have given her ; lay it out on your own back, and she 

 will be ambitious of your least notice. People judge of you not from 

 what they know, but from the impression you make on others, which 

 depends chiefly on professions, and on outward bearing and bravery. 

 DC non apparentibus et non cxistentibns cadem est ratio. If a man has no 

 opinion of himself, how the deuce should any one else. It is like elect- 



