XIX.

Lord Coke has said: "To trace an error to its fountainhead is to refute
it." Now, my young pupils, I take it for granted that you are interested
in the preservation of error; you do not wish it, therefore, to be traced
to its fountain head. Whenever, then, you see a sharp fellow tracking it
up, you have two ways of settling the matter. You may say, with a smile,
"Nay, now, sir, you grow speculative,--I admire your ingenuity;" or else
look grave, colour up, and say, "I fancy, sir, there is no warrant for
this assertion in the most sacred of all authorities!" The Devil can
quote Scripture, you know; and a very sensible Devil it is too!



XX.

Rochefoucauld has said: "The hate of favourites is nothing else but the
love of favour." The idea is a little cramped; the hate we bear to any
man is only the result of our love for some good which we imagine he
possesses, or which, being in our possession, we imagine he has attacked.
Thus envy, the most ordinary species of hate, arises from our value for
the glory, or the plate, or the content we behold; and revenge is born
from our regard for our fame that has been wounded, or our acres
molested, or our rights invaded. But the most noisy of all hatreds is
hatred for the rich, from love for the riches. Look well on the poor
devil who is always railing at coaches and four! Book him as a man to
be bribed!