
82 KIDD'’S OWN JOURNAL. 

be inferiority in some things, there may 
be superiority in others. Thus no individual 
is the lowest; for he that is low in some 
respects is high in others. 
When I was a little boy, I was at a very 
great school—great, I mean, in point of num- 
bers; and when we walked to church, our 
arrangement was not according to literary 
merit or proficiency, but according to height ; 
so that we might thereby look more uniform 
in the public eye. There were also two 
other classifications—viz., the classification 
according to penmanship, and the classifica- 
tion according to general literature or gram- 
matical attainments. Thus there was a 
pleasant and amusing variety of rank; and 
we were sometimes as puzzled to settle points 
of precedency and etiquette, as any little 
party in a country town ; for it was seldom 
that height, writing, and grammar were in 
the same proportion. One was before another 
in measuring ; and another took precedence 
in writing, but wanting height; while a third 
might be an excellent grammar scholar, but 
neither a penman nor a Colossus. So, by 
these means, we all of us had more or less 
the pleasure of looking down upon one 
another; and all of us could enjoy, if we 
wished it, the pleasure of condescension. 
Dr. Johnson was therefore manifestly wrong, 
in doubting whether the wife of a cheese- 
monger in ‘Tooley-street was capable of con- 
descending; or whether there were anypersons 
who might properly be called her inferiors. 
It would be indeed a sad and cruel thing, 
if a man should feel that all were condescend- 
ing to him, and that he himself could be con- 
descending to nobody—because nobody was 
inferior to him. To be the first in society, 
though attended with some inconveniences, 
is still rather an object of ambition; there- 
fore the first may be safely defined, but to 
be the last is too painful; and the Herald’s 
Office, in mercy to mankind, leaves that 
point to be settled by those whom it may 
concern. Therefore 7 never is settled ; and so 
the pleasure of condescension may be en- 
joyed by all. 
The virtue of condescension is so exceed- 
ingly amiable and interesting, that one can- 
not help wishing to imitate it; and we 
naturally look out for our inferiors, in order 
to have the pleasure of gratifying them by 
our condescension, as much as we have been 
gratified by the condescension of our su- 
periors. It is observable how very conde- 
scending and patronising are the servants and 
dependants of the great. From observing 
the manners of their masters, and mistresses, 
and patrons, they gain the same air, and im- 
bibe the same feelings. In order to manifest 
condescension, as we have said above, there 
should be, of necessity, a sense or apprehen- 
sion of greatness; thus these domestics and 

dependants generally cultivate this feeling of 
greatness with much diligence and success. 
A greater or more condescending man than 
a great man’s porter, you do not often meet 
withal; and many a king upon a throne 
grants an audience to, or receives homage 
from, a most devoted and most humble sub- 
ject, with far less of the pomp of condescen- 
sion than a great man’s porter gives audience 
to a man in a seedy coat. 
Yet, perhaps, after all, the completest 
condescension is that of a great boy at school 
to a little one. I know aman who, about 
thirty years ago, was first boy at our school ; 
and he has told me more than once—and I 
dare say that, if we live to grow old, he will 
tell me a hundred times more, that his sense 
of greatness at that time was so absurdly 
strong, that he could absolutely contain no 
more, and that he was nearly bursting with 
pride. Yet he was marvellously condescend- 
ing; and I do verily believe, that if her 
most gracious Majesty, Victoria, of Great 
Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the 
Faith, &c. &e., should walk arm-in-arm with 
me in Pall-Mall or St. James’s Park, I should 
not think more highly of the condescension 
than I did of the condescension of the young 
gentleman above alluded to. 
We can never perhaps enjoy condescension 
so completely as in early life; before we have 
thoroughly ascertained the meaning and full 
force of the word ‘great ’—omne ignotum pro 
magnifico; and before we know what great- 
ness is, we think it a marvellously-magnifi- 
cent thing. After all, the game of conde- 
scension, like all other games, requires two to 
play at it; but unlike all other games, it is 
best played at by those who understand it 
least ; for, when it is thoroughly understood 
by both parties, it is rather too broad a 
farce, and carried on with a serious face. 
I very much admire the churchwarden’s 
wife who went to church for the first time 
in her life, when her husband was church- 
warden. Being somewhat late, the congre- 
gation were getting up from their knees at 
the time she entered, and she said, with a 
sweetly condescending smile—‘‘ Pray keep 
your seats, ladies and gentlemen; I think no 
more of myself now than I did before.”’ 
D. Oke 
NATURE’S ELOQUENCE, 

Waar language lurks beneath a glance ! 
Their eyes but met, and then were turned aside. 
It was enough! ‘That mystic eloquence, 
Unheard, yet visible, is plainly felt, 
And tells what else were incommunicable. 
Tt is the voiceless language which the stars 
Speak to each other in the quiet night! 
Derozier. 
[This is a sweet commentary on the sentiments 
to which we are so often giving utterance.] 


