49.4 TAE ADVANTAGES OF HUMILITY [SECT. 2V. tion to himself as well as to all around him : You must watch as for your life, if you would never offend him ; you must be observant of all his motions and comport with every notice of his pleasure : You can hardly move or speak, but you speak or move amiss : And if you would correct your mistake. by doing thereverse of what you did before, this may be quite wrong also,, and it is scarce possible for you to be in the.right. So difficult, so tiresöme, so impracticable a thing it is to please these vain animals, these pettish or wayward creatures, these everlasting children, which are grown to the size of men and women. Methinks I hear them disdain the name of child and resent my description : But let them go on with their dis- dain and resentment, and swell with their own manly idea ; Yet let them know that till they put off these childish and humourous behaviours, they are but infants in longer garments, with all that high opinion and that overgrown esteem they have of themselves. They must begin their education again and unlearn these follies, if ever they would find sincere honour among menof wis- dom and goodness. What claim, what pretence has that man to the-esteem and love of men whose conduct is insupportable to all those who converse or dwell with him? And what is it but the vast and vain idea he has of himself, that tempts him to suppose, his will must be the absolute riile of duty and submission to all who are near him or concerned with hind Let such persons declaim against tyranny as often and as loud as they please, and argue upon the theme with much wit and reason ; let them talk of liberty and slavery in philosophical and just discourses, and appear the most ,forward and zealous patrons of the freedom of mankind, yet if they were exalted to a throne they would be very tyrants, and the world around them must be all their slaves. Native vice and -inbred iniquity would prevail even above their own good reasonings, and mould their practice into that absolute sovereignty and dominion which their own' mind and conscience must ever con- demn, and which their own lips at special seasons have so plentifullyand so justly exposed. This is sufficiently evident by their conduct whereso- ever they happen to have power: They are already little
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