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for what fignifies his being proud, if there is not fomebody always present to exercise his pride upon? He must therefore of neceffity have a fet of humble coufins and toad-eaters about him, and as fuch cattle cannot be had for nothing in this country, he must pay them according to the value of their fervices; common trash may be had at a common price, but clever fellows know their own confequence, and will stand out upon terms: If Nebuchadnezzar had not had all people, nations and languages at his command, he might have called till he was hoarfe before any one would have come to worship his image in the plain of Dura; let the proud man take notice withal that Nebuchadnezzar's image was made of gold, and if he expects to be worshipped by all people after this fashion, and cafts himself in the fame mould, he must also caft himself in the fame metal. Now if I am right in my assertion, that fycophants bear a higher price in England than elsewhere (and, if scarcity makes things dear, I fruft they do) let the proud man confider if it be worth his while to pay dear for bad company, when he may have good-fellowship at an easy rate: Here then is another inftance of his bad policy, and fure it is a forrowful thing to be poor and proud.

That I may thoroughly do my duty to an order

of men, to whose service I dedicate this short effay, I must not omit to mention, that it behoves a proud man in all places and on all occafions to preferve an air of gloominefs and melancholy, and never to fuffer fo vulgar an expreffion as mirth or laughter to difarrange the decorum of his features: other men will be apt to make merry with his humour, but he must never be made merry by their's: In this refpect he is truly to be pitied, for if once he grows fociable he is undone. On the contrary, he must for ever remain in the very predicament of the proud man defcribed in the fragment of Euripides's Ixion—Dinois äμixlós, яà пάonπóa - Urbi atque amicis pariter infociabilis: He must have no friend, for that would be to admit an equal; he must take no advice, for that would be to acknowledge a fuperior : Such fociety as he can find in his own thoughts, and fuch wisdom as he was sent into the world with,, such he must go on with: as wit is not absolutely annexed to pedigree in this country, and arts and feiences fometimes condefcend to throw their beams upon the low-born and the humble, it is not poffible for the proud man to descend amongst them for information and fociety; if truth does not hang within his reach, he will never dive into a well to fetch it up: His errors, like fome arguments, move in a circle; for

his pride begets ignorance, and his ignorance begets pride; and thus in the end he has more reafons for being melancholy than Mafter Stephen had not only because it is gentleman-like, but because he can't help it, and don't know how to be merry,

I might enumerate many more properties of this contemptible character, but these are enough, and a proud man is fo dull a fellow at best that I fhall gladly take my leave of him; I confefs also that I am not able to treat the subject in any other than a vague and defultory manner, for I know not how to define it myself, and at the same time am not reconciled to any other definition of pride, which I have met in Mr. Locke's effay or elsewhere. It is called a paffion, and yet it has not the effentials of a paffion; for I can bring to mind nothing under that defcription, which has not reference either to God, to our fellow-creatures, or to ourselves.

-The fenfual paffions for inftance of whatever fort have their end in selfish gratification; the generous attributes, fuch as valour, friendship, public fpirit, munificence and contempt of danger have refpect to our fellow-creatures; they look for their account in an honorable fame, in the enjoyment of prefent praife and in the anticipation

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cipation of that, which pofterity shall bestow; whilft the lefs oftentatious and purer virtues of felf-denial, refignation, humility, piety, forbearance and many others are addreffed to God · alone, they offer no gratification to felf, they feek for no applause from man. But in which of these three general claffes fhall we discover the paffion of pride? I have indeed fometimes feen it under the cloak of religion, but nothing can be more opposite to the practice of it: It is in vain to enquire for it amongst the generous and social attributes, for it's place is no where to be found in fociety; and I am equally at a lofs to think how that can be called a selfish gratification, which brings nothing home to a man's heart but mortification, contempt, abhorrence, fecret difcontent and public ridicule. It is compofed of contraries, and founded in abfurdity; for at the fame time that it cannot fubfift without the world's respect, it is so constituted as never to obtain it. Anger is proverbially termed a short madness, but pride methinks is a perpetual one; if I had been inclined to ufe a fofter word, I would have called it folly; I do confefs I have often feen it in that more venial character, and therefore not to decide upon the point too hastily, I fhall leave the proud man to

make

make his choice between folly and madness, and take out his commiffion from which party he fees fit.

Good heaven! how pleafant, how complacent to itself and others is an humble difpofition! To a foul fo tempered how delightfully life paffes in brotherly love and fimplicity of manners! Every eye beftows the chearing look of approbation upon the humble man; eyery brow frowns contempt upon the proud. Let me therefore advise every gentleman, when he finds himself inclined to take up the character of pride, to confider well whether he can be quite proud enough for all purposes of life; whether his pride reaches to that pitch as to meet univerfal contempt with indifference; whether it will bear him out against mortification, when he finds himself excluded from fociety, and underftands that he is ridiculed by every body in it; whether it is convenient to him always to walk with a ftiff back and a ftern countenance; and laftly, whether he is perfectly fure, that he has that ftrength and felf-fupport in his own human nature, as may defy the power and fet at nought the favor of God, who refifteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

There is yet another little eafy process, which I would recommend to him as a kind of proba

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