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It is the common failing of an ambitious mind to overrate itself—to imagine that it has, by the caprice of fortune, been defrauded of the high honors due to its supposed superiority. It conceives itself to have been injured'—to have fallen from its. destination; and these unfounded claims become the source of endless discontent. The mind thus disappointed preys upon itself, and compares its present lowliness with the imaginary heights for which it fancies itself to have been designed. Under the influence of these reflections the character grows sullen and reserved, detaches itself from all social enjoyments, and professes to despise the honors for which it secretly pines* Mediocrity and a common lot, a man of this disposition cannot bring himself to endure; and he wilfully rejects the little granted, because all cannot be obtained to which he had aspired.