SECT. ilia IN REGARD OF MEN. 481 he prefers his neighbour in the honours of the invisible world, while in all things visible he is much superior to him : Thus he fulfils the advice ofSt. Paul to the Philip- pians, chap.. ii. verse 3. and " in lowliness of mind esteems others better than himself." Such a happy spirit as this_reigning within us will ut- . terly forbid us to fall in with a word of scandal 'when it is going current round the room : A wretched but a come mon crime ! Humble souls ever carry about them sucha constant sense of their own defects and follies that they dare not help onward the flying reproach. They find so manyerrors in their own lives that theycannot dwell with delight on the blemishes of their fellow-mortals. An inward consciousness and shame blushes in their bosoms, and imposes silence upon their lips : Or perhaps com- passion awakens them to make some apology for the absent sufferer, or to strike the scandal dead with a word ofjust reproof. If we have a low opinion of ourselves, our eyes will never acquire the disdainful cast, nor learn the scornful airs of those who are full of self. Our lips will never assume the haughty tone and the insolent language of the proud in heart. " Speak not ;" say they to their infe rior friends, " we do not want your prattle, while I am here : Answer not when I give my opinion: Do what I require, be silent and dumb : Do you not know who it is speaks to you ?" At another time they will forbid you their company: " go out of my sight, avoid my presence, it is not fit I should be seen in your company, you have neither dress nor Manners fit to appear. ", go the haughty hypocrites in the days of Isaiah the prophet, " Stand by thyself for I am holier and better than thou ;" Is. lxv. 5. So the proud mortals ofevery age publish and pronounce their scorn of those, whom providence has placed but a little below them. Such sort of language, indeed, should scarce ever be used by masters to their own menial servants, but where the servant is very assuming, : or intolerably impertinent. But for persons to treat lower friends or acquaintance at this rate,: gives too evident a signal of a proud spirit. Where the eyes and the lips have learned thesedisdain- ful and imperious airs, it is exceeding hard to unlearn them. A peacock may almost as soon be untaught to VOL. III. 2 I
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=