rimony. It gives us an opportunity of unbosoming our
feelings and views and wishes not only with safety, but often with
_sympathy_.

But confidence may sometimes be reposed, in other circumstances. Too
much reserve makes us miserable. Perhaps it were better that we should
suffer a little, now and then, than that we should never trust.

As an instance of the extent to which mankind can sometimes be confided
in, and to show that celibacy, too, is not without this virtue, you
will allow me to relate, briefly, an anecdote.

A certain husband and wife had difficulties. They both sought advice of
a single gentleman, their family physician. For some time there was
hope of an amicable adjustment of all grievances; but at length every
effort proved vain, and an open quarrel ensued. But what was the
surprise of each party to learn by accident, some time afterward, that
both of them had sought counsel of the same individual, and yet he had
not betrayed the trust.

In a few instances, too, secrets have been confided to husbands,
without their communicating them to their wives; and the contrary. This
was done, however, by particular request. It is a requisition which,
for my own part, I should be very unwilling to make.

SECTION XV. _Fear of Poverty._

The ingenious but sometimes fanciful Dr. Darwin, reckons the fear of
poverty as a disease, and goes on to prescribe for it.

The truth is, there is not much _real_ poverty in this country. Our
very paupers are rich, for they usually have plenty of wholesome food,
and comfortable clothing, and what could a Croesus, with all _his_
riches, have more? Poverty exists much more in imagination than in
reality. The _shame of being thought poor_, is a great and fatal
weakness, to say the least. It depends, it is true, much upon the
fashion.

So long as the phrase 'he is a good man,' means that the person spoken
of is rich, we need not wonder that every one wishes to be thought
richer than he is. When adulation is sure to follow wealth, and when
contempt would be sure to follow many if they were not wealthy; when
people are spoken of with deference, and even lauded to the skies
because their riches are very great; when this is the case, I say, we
need not wonder if men are ashamed to be thought poor. But this is one
of the greatest dangers which young people have to encounter in setting
out in life. It has brought thousands and hundreds of thousands to
pecuniary ruin.

One of the