the opposite extremes may often be observed to meet. They lie under similar disadvantages: and accordingly we find, that it is in the very highest and the very lowest orders that the most glaring instances of complete selfishness are produced. The attention of the high and the low vulgar is equally engrossed by the idea of self: but there is this difference, that among those who are obliged to exert every faculty to procure the means of existence, other objects are excluded from the mind by necessity; in those who revel amid superfluity, they are excluded by pride. In the one instance the feelings lie dormant; in the other they become extinct. The lady of quality, who, after describing the hocking accident which had befallen her son's tutor, gravely deplored the event, not as a misfortune to the poor

man,

man, but as an inconvenience to her son, made as open a display of her feelings, as did the mistress of a country inn where I once happened to change post-horses. Just as I drove from the door, the horse on which the postillion rode dropped down dead; his whole weight upon the poor boy's leg, who called out that it was broken. A crowd instantly assembled, and all seemed earnest to extricate the poor lad from his unpleasant situation, and anxious for his relief: all but the landlady, who kept wringing her hands, exclaiming, "My horse! my horse!

my

pretty horse! He cost me five-and"twenty guineas at the last fair! Oh, my pretty horse!"

66

Now though the lady and the innkeeper were each actuated by the same selfish principle, and though it operated in each to the exclusion of

the

the sympathies of humanity; we must allow that in the case of the latter it admitted of most excuse. In both it was openly displayed, and for the same reason, because neither had been accustomed to regard the impression which their conduct made

others.

upon

In the higher ranks of life this impression is not easy to be perceived, the laws of politeness and the respect due to rank obliging those with whom they converse to conceal their feelings. But in truth, the impression it makes is little regarded. The heart that is filled by pride and selfishness is callous to contempt.

On this account it is that extreme meanness is so often found the attendant of extreme pride. People who depend upon their character for the respect which is dear to all, are restrained from acts of meanness by

being obliged to model their conduct to generally received opinion; but those who derive all the respect they wish for from their external circumstances, are deprived of this salutary check. They are consequently often mean in the extreme; acts of meanness by which I should deem myself everlastingly dishonoured, some persons of very exalted rank might not, perhaps, conceive derogatory to their character, nor would perceive it, if in situation alone they placed all dependence for respect.

Even the first principles of truth and justice, meet in the higher circles with obstacles which render a strict adherence to them a matter of the greatest difficulty. That I may escape the odium of intentional exaggeration, I shall present you with a picture of refined and polished manners, as drawn

by

by one who was born and bred in the scenes which he describes.

"It is," says the Earl of Orford, "in

drawing refined or affected nature, "that consists the extreme difficulty "of painting what is called high life; "where affectation, politeness, fashion, "art, interest, and the attentions "exacted by society, restrain the sal"lies of passion, colour over vice, dis"guise crimes, and confine man to an "uniformity of behaviour, that is "composed to the standard of not "shocking, alarming, or offending "those who profess the same rule of "exterior conduct. Good breeding "conceals their sensations, interest "their crimes, and fashion legitimates "their follies. Good sense forms the

plan, education ripens it, conversa"tion gives the varnish, and wit the 86 excuse. Yet under all these dis