HINTS TO YOUNG SPOETSMEN AND OTHERS. 11 



was gratified in having caused it. There are those 

 we laugh at also ; but our laughter or smile is the 

 last thing they wish to call forth, and they would be 

 as much offended and mortified at having caused it 

 as the other would be pleased and gratified. But in 

 neither case do we laugh at the man, unless in the 

 case of the latter, who might refuse all advice — then 

 his folly or self-sufficiency might fairly justify our 

 risible inclinations. 



I always hope to be, and trust I have been so, on 

 good terms with my readers. I never make personal 

 allusions, unless it be in particular cases where 

 honesty impels me to censure the conduct of a 

 clique ; and even in so doing, though a particular 

 man may wince from feeling the reprobation come 

 home to him, he cannot say that I have held him up 

 as an object of public obloquy. There are men whose 

 good opinions I am in no way solicitous of possessing, 

 and if asked by one of those if, when speaking of a 

 set, I meant him, I should unhesitatingly reply, *' I 

 did, and as one of the very worst of that set :" but I 

 have no apprehension of being attacked by one of 



