talents, but by the talents of some one else. They see a tower, but are
occupied only with measuring its shadow, and think their own height
(which they never calculate) is to cast as broad a one over the earth.
It is the short man who is always throwing up his chin, and is as erect
as a dart. The tall man stoops, and the strong man is not always using
the dumb-bells.

Maltravers had not yet, then, the keen and sharp yearning for
reputation; he had not, as yet, tasted its sweets and bitters--fatal
draught, which /once/ tasted, begets too often an insatiable thirst!
neither had he enemies and decriers whom he was desirous of abashing by
merit. And that is a very ordinary cause for exertion in proud minds.
He was, it is true, generally reputed clever, and fools were afraid of
him: but as he actively interfered with no man's pretensions, so no man
thought it necessary to call him a blockhead. At present, therefore, it
was quietly and naturally that his mind was working its legitimate way
to its destiny of exertion. He began idly and carelessly to note down
his thoughts and impressions; what was once put on the paper, begot new
matter; his ideas became more lucid to himself; and the page grew a
looking-glass, which presented the likeness of his own features. He
began by writing with rapidity, and without method. He had no object
but to please himself, and to find a vent for an overcharged spirit;
and, like most writings of the young, the matter was egotistical. We
commence with the small nucleus of passion and experience, to widen the
circle afterwards; and, perhaps, the most extensive and universal
masters of life and character have begun by being egotists. For there
is in a man that has much in him a wonderfully acute and sensitive
perception of his own existence. An imaginative and susceptible person
has, indeed, ten times as much life as a dull fellow, "an he be
Hercules." He multiplies himself in a thousand objects, associates each