grossly unfit, and for which every one knew he was grossly unfit;
yet perfectly self-satisfied and comfortable under circumstances
which would have crushed many men, because he was kept up by two
or three individuals who frequently assured him that he was a very
eminent and useful person. These two or three individuals acted
as a buffer between him and the estimate of mankind at large. He
received their opinion as a fair sample of the general opinion. He
was indeed a man of very moderate ability; but I have known another
of very great talent, who by the laudations of one or two old
women was led to suppose that he possessed abilities of a totally
different nature from those which he actually possessed. I do not
mean higher abilities, but abilities extending into a field into
which his peculiar talents did not reach. Yet no one would have
been sharper at discerning the worthlessness of the judgment of
the old women had it been other than very flattering to himself.
Who is there that does not know that sometimes clever young men
are bolstered up into a self-conceit which does them much harm with
the outer world, by the violent admiration and flattery of their
mothers, sisters, and aunts at home?

But not merely does the favourable estimate of the. little circle
in which he lives serve to keep a man on good terms with himself;
it goes some way towards influencing the estimation in which he
is held by mankind at large--so far, that is, as mankind at large
know anything about him. I have known such a thing as a family whose
several members were always informing everybody they met what noble
fellows the other members of the family were. And I am persuaded
that all this really had some result. They were fine fellows, no
doubt; but this tended to make sure that they should not be hid
under a bushel. I am persuaded that if half-a-dozen clever young