Page:Francesca Carrara 2.pdf/71

68 too short to be occupied by aught but the present—hope and remembrance are equally a waste of time.

"I am given to flattery, not from any interested motive, but because I like to say agreeable things. My own vanity, which is great, makes me sensitive to that of others. And here I would observe, that love of admiration seems scarcely to be properly appreciated; it is the only bond of society—we could not otherwise endure each other. It is the true source of the sublime, and, my conscience obliges me to add, of the ridiculous. Still, it is the strong necessity of admiring each other, and the being admired in our turn, that has built cities, congregated multitudes, and organised what we call our present state of civilisation.

"I am lively—a sort of temper very popular, for it makes no troublesome demands upon our civility; and am entirely carried away by the impulse of the minute. Hence, I am incapable of every profound or lasting attachment. I should forget my own identity, could I be parted from myself for a week.

"I incline mostly to look at things on the ridiculous side, and this makes me an amusing companion; and I rarely think much of my