from the villagers,
the first man in the parish, the benefactor of the parish, with a
consciousness of consummate desert, saying, "Have mercy upon us,
miserable sinners," to be sure, but only for form's sake, because the
words are written in the book, and to give other folks an example--a G.
O. C. G. a miserable sinner! So healthy, so wealthy, so jolly, so much
respected by the vicar, so much honoured by the tenants, so much beloved
and admired by his family, amongst whom his story of grouse in the
gunroom causes laughter from generation to generation;--this perfect
being a miserable sinner! Allons donc! Give any man good health and
temper, five thousand a year, the adoration of his parish, and the love
and worship of his family, and I'll defy you to make him so heartily
dissatisfied with his spiritual condition as to set himself down a
miserable anything. If you were a Royal Highness, and went to church
in the most perfect health and comfort, the parson waiting to begin the
service until your R. H. came in, would you believe yourself to be a
miserable, etc.? You might when racked with gout, in solitude, the fear
of death before your eyes, the doctor having cut off your bottle of
claret, and ordered arrowroot and a little sherry,--you might then be
humiliated, and acknowledge your own shortcomings, and the vanity of
things in general; but, in high health, sunshine, spirits, that word
miserable is only a form. You can't think in your heart that you are
to be pitied much for the present. If you are to be miserable, what is
Colin Ploughman, with the ague, seven children, two pounds a year rent
to pay for his cottage, and eight shillings a week? No: a healthy, rich,
jolly, country gentleman, if miserable, has a very supportable misery:
if a sinner, has very few people to tell him so.

It may be he becomes somewhat selfish; but at least he is satisfied with
himself. Except my lord at the castle, there is nobody for miles and
miles round so good or so great. His admirable wife ministers to him,
and to the whole parish, indeed: his children bow before him: the vicar
of the parish reverences him: he is respected at quarter-sessions: he
causes poachers to tremble: off go all hats before him at market: and
round about his great coach, in which his spotless daughters and sublime
lady sit, all the country-town tradesmen cringe, bareheaded, and the
farmeers' women drop innumerable curtseys. From their cushions in the
great coach th