ces in life in which the most effectual
way of conferring a favor is condescending to accept one. I
have known Harden long and most intimately--a more
respectable man, either for feeling, or talent, or knowledge
of human life, is rarely to be met with. But he is rather
indecisive--requiring some instant stimulus in order to make
him resolve to do, not only what he knows to be right, but
what he really wishes to do, and means to do one time or
other. He is exactly Prior's Earl of Oxford:--

"Let that be done which Mat doth say."
"Yea," quoth the Earl, "_but not to-day_."

And so exit Harden, and enter Selkirk.

I know hardly anything more exasperating than the conduct of
the little blackguards, and it will be easy to discover and
make an example of the biggest and most insolent. In the
mean while, my dear Lord, pardon my requesting you will take
no general or sweeping resolution as to the Selkirk folks.
Your Grace lives near {p.145} them--your residence, both
from your direct beneficence, and the indirect advantages
which they derive from that residence, is of the utmost
consequence; and they must be made sensible that all these
advantages are endangered by the very violent and brutal
conduct of their children. But I think your Grace will be
inclined to follow this up only for the purpose of
correction, not for that of requital. They are so much
beneath you, and so much in your power, that this would be
unworthy of you--especially as all the inhabitants of the
little country town must necessarily be included in the
punishment. Were your Grace really angry with them, and
acting accordingly, you might ultimately feel the regret of
my old schoolmaster, who, when he had knocked me down,
apologized by saying he did not know his own strength. After
all, those who look for anything better than ingratitude
from the uneducated and unreflecting mass of a corrupted
population, must always be deceived; and the better the
heart is that has been expanded towards them, their wants
and their wishes, the deeper is the natural feeling of
disappointment. But it is our duty to fight on, doing what
good we can (and surely the disposition and the means were
never more happily united than in your Grace), and trusting
to God Almight