of the misfortune he sustained by the loss of her, though, as it
afterwards proved, was the greatest could have happened to him: the
remembrance of the tenderness with which she had used him, joined to
the sight of all the family in tears, made him at first indeed utter
some bitter lamentations; but the thoughts of a new suit of mourning,
a dress he had never yet been in, soon dissipated his grief, and the
sight of himself before the great glass, in a habit so altogether
strange, and therefore pleasing to him, took off all anguish for the
sad occasion.--So early do we begin to be sensible of a satisfaction
in any thing that we imagine is an advantage to our persons, or will
make us be taken notice of.--How it grows up with us, and how
difficult it is to be eradicated, I appeal even to those of the most
sour and cynical disposition.

Mr. Dryden admirably describes this propensity in human nature in
these lines:

Men are but children of a larger growth,
Our appetites as prone to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain.

A fondness for trifles is certainly no less conspicuous in age than
youth; and we daily see it among persons of the best understanding,
who wholly neglect every essential to real happiness in the pursuit of
those very toys which children cry to be indulged in; even such as a
bit of ribband, or the sound of a monosyllable tacked to the name;
without considering that those badges of distinction, like bells about
an ideot's neck, frequently serve only to render their folly more
remarkable, and expose them to the contempt of the lookers on, who
perhaps too, as nature is the same in all, want but the same