MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 279 



Do not all the sympathies that regard external objects, and are the 

 principal causes of our moral sentiments, arise from custom ? If we 

 see a person comb his head, our head itches all over, and we cannot 

 help scratching it [?]. 



We often do not know how to choose the same kind of thing, among 

 a variety ; but if we were sure of the right one, which [certainty] is 

 acquired by custom, we should not be at a loss. 



The belief of futurity is from custom. It arises from the repetition 

 of events that arise naturally out of apparent causes, and which are 

 every day showing themselves. 



Miscellaneous Notes and Apothegms. 



Ambition is a species of vanity : it is wishing or aiming at something 

 beyond its powers. 



There never was a man that wanted to be a great man ever was a 

 great man 1 . 



Great men have endeavoured always to do some great action that 

 seemed to tend to some great good ; and the effect made them great. 

 Wanting to be great is vanity without the power. 



In the first, the person himself is not the object ; or, if he be, he is 

 only the secondary one : in the second, it is the person himself is the 

 object, and the thing [to be done] is only the secondary. 



Never take a gentleman [fine gentleman, or coxcomb, interpolates 

 Mr. Clift] as a pupil in physic ; for, depend upon it, it is not simple 

 curiosity, it is himself that is the object of his attention : and, whatever 

 knowledge he may acquire, is only to employ upon himself, or tease 

 others : he becomes his own patient ever after. 



Obligations rendered between equals have an equal value put upon 

 them by both sides ; and that is the value of the thing. Obligations 

 conferred by an inferior on a superior enhances the value, not according 

 to the value of the thing itself, but according to the superiority of him 

 that takes it. This increases the [gift's] value in the giver's eye ; while, 

 on the other hand, the receiver only values it according to the [degree 

 of the] giver ; and even does not put the true value upon it ; and not 

 the same value that he would have put upon it if he had received it 

 from an equal. This principle is the reason why inferiors blame so much 

 the ingratitude of the great. 



The degree of estimation in which any profession is held, becomes 

 the standard of the estimation in which the professors hold themselves. 



1 [No man ever was a great man who wanted to be one.] Here Hunter shows his 

 appreciation of the ' unconscious ' element in true greatness. 



