of remorse to corrode my tranquillity of mind. I was sure to find
some one to excel me in something, and this was enough to embitter my
peace. Our living Goldsmith is my favourite poet, and I perhaps
insensibly venerate the genius the more because I find something
congenial in the infirmities of the man. I can fully credit the
anecdotes recorded of him. I, too, could once have been jealous of a
puppet handling a spontoon; I, too, could once have been miserable if
two ladies at the theatre were more the objects of attention than
myself! You, Clarence, will not despise me for this confession; those
who knew me less would. Fools! there is no man so great as not to
have some littleness more predominant than all his greatness. Our
virtues are the dupes, and often only the playthings, of our follies!
smile, but it is mournfully, in looking back to that day. Though
rich, high-born, and good-looking, I possessed not one of these three
qualities in that eminence which could alone satisfy my love of
superiority and desire of effect. I knew this somewhat humiliating
truth, for, though vain, I was not conceited. Vanity, indeed, is the
very antidote to conceit; for while the former makes us all nerve to
the opinion of others, the latter is perfectly satisfied with its
opinion of itself.

I knew this truth, and as Pope, if he could not be the greatest of
poets, resolved to be the most correct, so I strove, since I could not
be the handsomest, the wealthiest, and the noblest of my
contemporaries, to excel them, at least, in the grace and
consummateness of manner; and in this after incredible pains, after
diligent apprenticeship in the world and intense study in the closet,
I at last flattered myself that I had succeeded. Of all success,
while we are yet in the flush of youth and its capacities of
enjoyment, I can imagine none more intoxicating or gratifying than the