1831.] The Sycophant. 539 



firm and severe, but when he smiled, there was something so ineffably 

 sweet in its character, that you forgot the statesman, and looked only 

 upon a kind and benevolent friend. His forehead was high and expan- 

 sive, and the eyes which sheltered beneath his very shaggy and rugged 

 brows, were quick and even restless in action and expression. He read 

 over his brother's letter without betraying any emotion, at least, none 

 that would have excited the attention of an ordinary observer. Again 

 he cast his eye upon the opening paragraph, and commented thus upon 

 the epistle, leaning back in the chaise-longue, and placing his feet on a 

 small ottoman that stood directly before the fire : — 



" Second son, Winterton." The eldest, I suppose, is to be initiated 

 like Dandie Dinmont's terriers, "wi rottens, wi stots, wi tods, and 

 brocks, until he fears nothing that ever wore a hairy skin,'' and that for 

 the purpose of keeping the animal with just the proportion of intellect 

 that belonged to his ancestors ! 



" Unbaronetted bears." I do believe my worthy brother thinks my 

 accepting a baronetcy as disgraceful as if I had been knighted on Lord 

 Mayor's day. 



" Manifested in many various ways the disposition of a courtier," — 

 ergo — " he can never be an honest man." Harold, Harold ! An elder 

 brother never forgives a younger one his prosperity ; and to cut at my 

 advancement you resort to the old adage of " rogues at court." 

 " Use their tusks." Aye, to gore their friends. 



" Graceful bow." You were, indeed, a bear, and consequently 

 despised the ease and grace which churlish nature had denied you from 

 your birth ; how easy it is to despise what we cannot possess. Happy, 

 happy," repeated the minister. '' After all, we may balance accounts, 

 perhaps, and place nothing to either debtor or creditor ! Happiness !" 

 he again ejaculated ; and pressing his hand on his brow, repeated the 

 wise observation of a wise man, — " Alas ! we are apt to call things by 

 wrong names : — we will have prosperity to be happiness, and adversity 

 to be misery, though that is truly the school of wisdom." 



" If he is to go to the devil, it is easier travelling a road embedded 

 with golden sand, than one covered with paving stones !" An expres- 

 sion of bitterness and scorn passed over the baronet's face as he laid 

 down the letter, after repeating the paragraph. " And this," he said, 

 " is the moral philosophy of an English country gentleman, in the year 

 of our Lord 18 — •! No attempt to withdraw his son from what he 

 affects to consider the road to destruction ; the youth has taken it into 

 his head, I suppose, to fall down and worship the idol of the straining 

 eyes and the beating heart — even ambition ! and his father says ' you'll 

 be certainly damned for idolatry ; but if you get well paid for it, why, 

 you must e'en support the gilded curse as best you can !' What clods 

 we are at best," he continued, after a moment's pause, " marry ! this 

 brother of mine cannot see the difference between a courtier and a syco- 

 phant — between a man who, inspired by the glorious rays of God's own 

 luminary, soars upwards, and upwards, and upwards, until with steady 

 eye and well-poised wing he looks on earth's greatest as the mere instru- 

 ments of his ambition : — he caimot see the difference between such a 

 being as this, and the moping, mowing owl that feeds on mice, worships 

 the moon, and pays homage to all that have better eyes than itself; both 

 are ra])acious, and so, according to liis theory, both must be the same. 

 1 must see the youth, however, and shall soon see through him, I sus- 



