Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/54

 Home informs us, that he would weep at the recital of a generous action; and when shame cannot prevent us from doing this, neither will fear deter us from expressing our indignation at one of an opposite nature. We are apt to misjudge one another. Few have the penetration of Sterne, and are capable of discerning how circumstances, trivial in themselves, by links of connection with the finer feelings of the mind, may produce the extremes of pain or pleasure. Mr. Hunter had befriended and professionally attended the family of a poor man of much talent as a painter. He afterwards requested him to paint the head of an animal. When the portrait came home, Mr. Hunter was delighted with it; but when he found it was accompanied with a bill to a much greater amount than would have been charged by any other artist, he was highly incensed. Can it be supposed, that it was the necessity for paying so much money, that made Mr. Hunter angry? No; it was ingratitude, which worse than the viper’s fang had wounded him, and produced this paroxysm of irritation.