304 A TOUB ROUND MT GARDEN. 



to be Mr. Any-one, with not only his fortune, his rank, or 

 his reputation ; but if he should like to change minds, noses, 

 teeth, and names with him. If he tell you the truth, there 

 will always be something which he will wish to reserve, 

 something in which he feels himself superior to all others : 

 lead him to talk a little more, and he will not fail to let you 

 perceive that the things in which he acknowledges himself 

 inferior, are things about which he cares very little ; that real 

 qualities and perfections, such as are worth the trouble of wish- 

 ing for, such as truly deserve admiration, are precisely those 

 by which he believes he bears it away. 



I would tell you to put this question to yourself; but 

 although there is some chance of making another person 

 Bpeak truth if you happen to be more cunning or more 

 skilful than he, I fear there is very little chance of making a 

 man speak truth to himself. 



Well; this man so happy, so proud of being precisely him- 

 self, he never exhibits himself such as he really is, either 

 morally or physically : he will boast of talents which he does 

 not possess, and conceal qualities he, perhaps, might justly 

 claim merit for. Take him upon all points, and, with a little 

 address, you will make him, by fractions, disown himself three 

 times over. 



I again ask, how is it possible to be at the same time so 

 proud and so humble, and of the self-same things? 



What vanity and what humility ! 



" Every man possesses three characters : that which he 

 exhibits, that which he really has, and that which he believes 

 he has." 



