Page:The Adventures of David Simple (1904).djvu/110

 therefore can be as rude, though in different terms, as the most vulgar wretch in the world. In short, every action of his is centred in pride; and the only reason he is not perfectly ridiculous, is, because he has sense enough to affect to be quite contrary to what he is. And as you know he has great parts, and his manner is very engaging whenever he pleases, very few people really know him." "What, then," says David, "have I been hugging myself all this time in the thoughts, that I had met with a man who really deserved my esteem, and it is all owing to my ignorance of his real character?"

"Yes, sir," answered the gentleman, "I assure you, what I have told you is all true, and if you give yourself the trouble to observe him narrowly, you will soon be convinced of it." David, with a sigh, replied, he wanted no stronger proof of the certainty of it; for what he himself said last night, joined to what he had just now heard, was full conviction enough. "I never was so startled," continued he, "in my life, as at his saying, he looked upon compassion as a weakness. Is it possible that the most amiable quality human nature can be possessed of should be treated with contempt by a man of his understanding! or is it all delusion, and am I as much deceived in his sense as in his goodness? For surely nothing but the greatest folly could make a creature, who must every day, nay, every hour in the day, be conscious of a thousand failings, and feel a thousand infirmities, fancy himself a deity, and contemplate his own perfections!" "As to that," says the gentleman, "when you have seen more of the world, you will find that what is generally called sense, has very little to do with what a man thinks; where self is at all concerned, inclination steps in, and will not give the judgment fair play, but forces it to wrest and torture the meaning of everything to its own purposes. You must know, there