MAKING THE MOST OF ONE'S TALENT. 211 



disposal. So far as my particular turn goes, I 

 should derive no more pleasure from riding 

 Tilbury's horses during a season, than I should in 

 riding a post-horse to Hounslow by way of an 

 airing. I have been accustomed to own nice 

 ones, had (I hope a pardonable) pride in them, 

 and, I am free to confess, in their condition, and 

 sometimes performance. Now I cannot conceive 

 anything flattering to this little harmless vanity 

 in riding such a horse, the property of another, 

 and under the management of the servant of 

 another. But the feeling of having made a horse 

 the clever animal he is, and bringing him into the 

 condition he is, does go somewhere towards show- 

 ing you know what you are about. I am quite 

 willing to allow that making a hunter, bringing 

 him out in king's plate condition, and riding him 

 well (supposing the latter to be done), is no great 

 matter to be vain about ; but if a man's mind and 

 talents are not framed to the performance of great 

 achievements, it would be hard to deprive him of 

 enjoying the little triumph attendant on the per- 

 formance of minor ones. 



We should have been sorry to see John Kemble 

 sing a comic song between the acts of Hamlet 

 Now, I certainly could not play Hamlet, but 

 I fancy I could manage "Jim along Josey." 

 "Well, it is better to be encored in that than, 

 hissed in Hamlet. So I have always fancied 

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