513 / 652
SECT.
tv.]
be
polite
and fashionable, must be
agreeable
to
their
fancy,
or else
they are affronted, and
their
choler
is
raised.
The
man
of
vanity imagines
his
character
and
his
figure
so
exalted,
as
though
he had
a
right
to claim
honour
from
all
around
him
;
and upon
this
account
he has an
unhap-
py right
to
assume to
himself
more affronts
than others,
and
to
vex
himself
with many resentments above and be-
yond
his
neighbours
:
The
idea
of
his
own quality
entitles
him
to
it.
"
Well, let the vain man swell
thus with
his
own idea,
his grandeurs
and
his
honours, let
him
maintain and
ex-
ercise
this painful
and vexatious prerogative of continual
resentment,
while the
God of heaven
fills
my
heart with
humility
and peace.
Then
shall
I stand aloof from
these
honourable
follies,
and be delivered
from
this
disquieting
and
uneasy consciousness
of
my
own
merit
:
I
shall
be
free from this
troublesome and
tormenting right of tak-
ing
offence
at
every
thing:
I shall
no more
resent
the
little supposed neglects of
my
inferiors, nor
teaze my
own heart with
those shadows
of
an
affront, which
a
vain
and
busy fancy can
create
hourly.
Grant, O
my
God,
thou
Father
of
my
spirit, that
there
may be no
dark
cor-
ner
in my
heart
to
keep
such
hellish
tinder
in
it, lest
I
should be
kindled
and
fired
with
every flying
spark."
V.
The
man who
is
not
wont
to raise a
great and
high
idea himself
can
much
more
easily
content himself
in
a
middle
station
of
life,
without
a
fond
and anxious
pursuit
of wealth
and grandeur
either
for
himself,
or for
his
household.
He
can rest
satisfied in a
mean
estate,
if the
providence of
God
so
appoint
it
;
for
what
is
there
in
me,
saith
he,
to
deserve or
expect
riches or greatness
among men
?
But
he
that
carries
about
him
an
exalted
image of
his
own worth,
is
pushed
on
by
ambition to
climb up
to
pinnacles,
and to
venture upon methods dan-
gerous
to
his
soul
and conscience,
in
order
to
acquire
wealth
as
the
support of equipage and grandeur.
It
is
hardly possible
for
a mortal
to
be
full
of
self,
but
he
must
be
worldly
-
minded.
Whereas
if
we
are
christians
and
the
sons
of
heaven
in
this
vain
and perishing world,
God
speaks
to us for
the
most
part
as
he did
to
Baruch
;
fer.
xlv. 5.
"
Seekest
thou great things
for
thyself, seek
them
not."
"
Stand thou, O
my
soul,
among the ranks
of humble
9,
x4
IN REGARD
TO
OURSELVES.
503