 that very tasteless
public, he himself owes all the consequence he has in life.
    Those originals are not fit for conversation. If they would maintain the
advantage they have gained by their writing, they should never appear but upon
paper - For my part, I am shocked to find a man have sublime ideas in his head,
and nothing but illiberal sentiments in his heart - The human soul will be
generally found most defective in the article of candour - I am inclined to
think, no mind was ever wholly exempt from envy; which, perhaps, may have been
implanted, as an instinct essential to our nature. I am afraid we sometimes
palliate this vice, under the specious name of emulation. I have known a person
remarkably generous, humane, moderate, and apparently self-denying, who could
not hear even a friend commended, without betraying marks of uneasiness; as if
that commendation had implied an odious comparison to his prejudice, and every
wreath of praise added to the other's character, was a garland plucked from his
own temples. This is a malignant species of jealousy, of which I stand acquitted
in my own conscience - Whether it is a vice, or an infirmity, I leave you to
inquire.
    There is another point, which I would much rather see determined; whether
the world was always as contemptible, as it appears to me at present? - If the
morals of mankind have not contracted an extraordinary degree of depravity,
within these thirty years, then must I be infected with the common vice of old
men, difficilis, querulus, laudator temporis acti; or, which is more probable,
the impetuous pursuits and avocations of youth have formerly hindered me from
observing those rotten parts of human nature, which now appear so offensively to
my observation.
    We have been at court, and 'change, and every where; and every where we find
food for spleen, and subject for ridicule - My new servant, Humphry Clinker,
turns out a great original; and Tabby is a changed creature - She has parted
with Chowder; and does nothing but smile, like Malvolio in the play - I'll be
hanged if she is not acting a part which is not natural to her disposition, for
some purpose which I have not yet discovered.
    With respect to the characters of mankind, my curiosity is quite satisfied:
I have done with the science of men, and must now endeavour to amuse myself with
the novelty of things. I am, at present, by a violent effort of the mind, forced
from my natural bias; but this power ceasing to
