Value of Public Opinion 



" but you may depend they will not omit to do so behind 

 your back." 



" What people say behind my back I don't so much care 

 for, as long as I have no good-natured friend to report it to 

 me." Here you see we were launched upon a general issue 

 of a very vague and desultory character. 



" What is the consequence of the world's good opinion of 

 you, except as it affects the world's manner of treating you? 

 Now, I am quite satisfied with the world's treatment of 

 me, which I feel confident is fully equal to, if not beyond, 

 my deserts. If people abuse me behind my back, I am 

 consoled by the idea that they also abuse everybody 

 else, and are abused themselves in turn by me and 

 others." 



" If you only care for the opinion of others, as far as you 

 hear it yourself, why should you care for fame after your 

 death, which, or course, you can't hear from anybody's 

 mouth, unless, indeed, you were to make a special injunc- 

 tion to your executors that your body should be eaten by 

 bookworms ? " 



" I care nothing," said I, " about posthumous fame. 

 When I am dead, it could not cause me to be asked to 

 dinners and balls, and dejeuners and drums, and that is all 

 the worldly use of fame, except the very equivocal gratifica- 

 tion which may arise from having one's worst jokes and 

 most maudlin sentiments laughed at, and listened to with 

 as much appreciation as one's best, because one is famous ; 

 and we certainly do see pottering old-established reputations 

 who seem to enjoy it." 



"If you don't care about posthumous fame," said Harry 

 (you see how soon our argument fell plump into personali- 

 ties), " why do you take care of such a lot of old scraps and 

 papers, which you never mean to publish while you are 



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