Page:Romance & Reality 1.pdf/210

204 greatest misfortune is that he was born in London, and in the congregating habits of the present day. His is a mind that requires to be thrown upon and within its own resources. To go back to the days of the Spectator, and illustrate my meaning by an allegory:—the two female figures that now wait to guide Hercules through the world are Philosophy and Vanity, and, according as one or other is his guide, he is benefited or injured: he who goes conducted by Philosophy, goes to think of others, and is benefited—he who is led by Vanity into society, goes to think of himself, and is injured." Edward Lorraine.—"How philosophical we should be—what moral truths we should discover, could we forget ourselves, and lose our identity in our examination!" Mr. Morland.—"Not so neither; ourselves must still be our rule for others: philosophy, like charity, begins at home; but also, like charity, I should wish it to extend, and become the more beneficial the more it expands. But à propos to benevolence, and 'all that sort of thing,' is this one of your favourite authors?" taking up a volume of Tremaine.