young; for his passions were then strong, and as they all were
upon the side of virtue, they led it up to a romantic extreme. He early began to
aim at the qualifications of the soldier and scholar; was soon distinguished in
the army, and had some reputation among men of learning. Adulation ever follows
the ambitious; for such alone receive most pleasure from flattery. He was
surrounded with crowds, who shewed him only one side of their character; so that
he began to lose a regard for private interest in universal sympathy. He loved
all mankind; for fortune prevented him from knowing that there were rascals.
Physicians tell us of a disorder in which the whole body is so exquisitely
sensible, that the slightest touch gives pain: what some have thus suffered in
their persons, this gentleman felt in his mind. The slightest distress, whether
real or fictitious, touched him to the quick, and his soul laboured under a
sickly sensibility of the miseries of others. Thus disposed to relieve, it will
be easily conjectured, he found numbers disposed to solicit: his profusions
began to impair his fortune, but not his good-nature; that, indeed, was seen to
encrease as the other seemed to decay: he grew improvident as he grew poor; and
though he talked like a man of sense, his actions were those of a fool. Still,
however, being surrounded with importunity, and no longer able to satisfy every
request that was made him, instead of money he gave promises. They were all he
had to bestow, and he had not resolution enough to give any man pain by a
denial. By this he drew round him crowds of dependants, whom he was sure to
disappoint; yet wished to relieve. These hung upon him for a time, and left him
with merited reproaches and contempt. But in proportion as he became
contemptible to others, he became despicable to himself. His mind had leaned
upon their adulation, and that support taken away, he could find no pleasure in
the applause of his heart, which he had never learnt to reverence. The world now
began to wear a different aspect; the flattery of his friends began to dwindle
into simple approbation. Approbation soon took the more friendly form of advice,
and advice when rejected produced their reproaches. He now therefore found that
such friends as benefits had gathered round him, were little estimable: he now
found that a man's own heart must be ever given to gain that of another. I now
found, that -- that -- I forget what I was going to observe