42 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



rather stand, without this fulcrum, and they 

 would not know what to have done without the 

 General as a support to their heads : command 

 of their mouths, of course, he had none, but when 

 he plumped down on his saddle they took it as a 

 signal to stop, and stopped accordingly. Of the^ 

 General's fencing I have heard him speak loudly 

 himself, but as I never saw anything of it, or 

 any one who had, I can say nothing on the 

 subject. 



I anticipate the observations of some on reading 

 what I have written, and can fancy I hear tbem 

 say, " It requires no ability to tell a man when 

 he has done wrong that he has done so." No one 

 can deny the truth of such an aphorism. I will 

 add something further: it does not require 

 abilities of any high order to tell a man where he 

 has done wrong, though this may be somewhat 

 more difficult : it may also be added, that if any 

 man takes upon himself to tell another when or 

 where he has done or will do wrono-. he ought to 

 feel himself competent to tell him how to do 

 right. I allow he ought; but whether he can is 

 quite another affair. 



If a man wanted such information as was ap- 

 plicable to the general tenor of his conduct in life, 

 he could not fix upon a man less qualified than 

 myself: in short, in fixing on me as a finger-post 

 to point out the right way, his selection would be 

 a most unfortunate one, not having been prominent 



