. Thackerayana;. ERA YANA. they ever learnt to read. I would not be thought an enemy toliterature (being, indeed, a very learned person myself), but whenI observe a worthy trader, without any natural malice of his own,sucking in the poison of popularity, and boiling with indignationagainst an administration which the pamphleteer informs him isvery corrupt, I am grieved that ever Machiavel, Hobbes, Sidney,Filmer, and the more illustrious moderns, including myself, ap-peared in human nature. Idleness is the parent of innumerable vices, and detraction isgenerally the first, though not immediately
. Thackerayana;. ERA YANA. they ever learnt to read. I would not be thought an enemy toliterature (being, indeed, a very learned person myself), but whenI observe a worthy trader, without any natural malice of his own,sucking in the poison of popularity, and boiling with indignationagainst an administration which the pamphleteer informs him isvery corrupt, I am grieved that ever Machiavel, Hobbes, Sidney,Filmer, and the more illustrious moderns, including myself, ap-peared in human nature. Idleness is the parent of innumerable vices, and detraction isgenerally the first, though not immediately the most mischievousthat is born of it. The mind of man is of such an ill make that itrelishes defamation much better than applause; so every writerwho makes his court to the multitude must sacrifice his superiorsto his patrons. That there is a very great and indefeasible authority in thepeople, or Commons of Great Britain, everyone allows. Power isever naturally and rightfully founded in those who have anything. to risk; and this power delegated into the hands of Parliament, itthere becomes legally absolute, and the people are, by their veryconstitution, obliged to a passive obedience. Nothing is better known than this, nothing on all sides moregenerally allowed, and one would imagine nothing could soonersilence the clamour of little statesmen and politicians; that jargonof public-spiritedness, which wastes so much of the time of the busypart of our countrymen. The misfortune is that though everyone THE humourist: 317 (who is not indeed crack-brained with the love of his country) willown that the populace, by having delegated the right of inspectingpublic affairs to others, have no authority to be troublesome aboutit themselves, yet everyone excepts himself from the multitude,and imagines that his own particular talent for public businessought to exempt him from so severe a restraint. Hence arises thegreat demand for newspapers and coffee. Happy is it for thenation and for th
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