Yet of all men he is the most pitiable,
for his overflowing vanity makes him betray his self-conceit; so that
though he is surrounded by flatterers, he has no friend; no one dare
tell him of his faults, but all seek to profit by his follies. I am no
pretender to prophecy; I know my own house totters in this storm, and I
have more need to prop and secure it than to concern myself as to what
will befall my neighbours. Sir William Waverly and I have chosen two
different methods of steering our barks; probably both may end in
shipwreck, but my eyes are fixed on the pole-star in the heavens, while
he has attended to deceitful charts and treacherous pilots. We will now
close the subject of his faults with inferences for our own improvement.
Let us be careful not to think too much of ourselves, and too little of
others. It is an excellent way of subduing the acute sense of
affliction, to employ our minds in assuaging the miseries of our
fellow-creatures; and prosperity is never so well enjoyed as when we
call in the stranger and the destitute, as well as our friends and
kindred, to share in its blessings.
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