pleader.



CHAPTER II - CRABBED AGE AND YOUTH



"You know my mother now and then argues very notably;
always very warmly at least. I happen often to differ from
her; and we both think so well of our own arguments, that we
very seldom are so happy as to convince one another. A pretty
common case, I believe, in all VEHEMENT debatings. She says,
I am TOO WITTY; Anglice, TOO PERT; I, that she is TOO WISE;
that is to say, being likewise put into English, NOT SO YOUNG
AS SHE HAS BEEN." - Miss Howe to Miss Harlowe, CLARISSA, vol.
ii. Letter xiii.


THERE is a strong feeling in favour of cowardly and
prudential proverbs. The sentiments of a man while he is full
of ardour and hope are to be received, it is supposed, with
some qualification. But when the same person has
ignominiously failed and begins to eat up his words, he should
be listened to like an oracle. Most of our pocket wisdom is
conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them
from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their
mediocrity. And since mediocre people constitute the bulk of
humanity, this is no doubt very properly so. But it does not
follow that the one sort of proposition is any less true than