504 / 652
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 men
of
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
plentifully
and
so
justly
exposed.
This
is
sufficiently
evident
by
their conduct
whereso-
ever they
happen
to
have
power:
They are already little