beauty, the worth, the mirth, or the mere scenic attitude in life of his
fellow-creatures. He shows himself throughout a sterling humanist.
Indeed, he who loves himself, not in idle vanity, but with a plenitude
of knowledge, is the best equipped of all to love his neighbours. And
perhaps it is in this sense that charity may be most properly said to
begin at home. It does not matter what quality a person has: Pepys can
appreciate and love him for it. He "fills his eyes" with the beauty of
Lady Castlemaine; indeed, he may be said to dote upon the thought of her
for years; if a woman be good-looking and not painted, he will walk
miles to have another sight of her; and even when a lady by a mischance
spat upon his clothes, he was immediately consoled when he had observed
that she was pretty. But, on the other hand, he is delighted to see Mrs.
Pett upon her knees, and speaks thus of his Aunt James: "a poor,
religious, well-meaning, good soul, talking of nothing but God Almighty,
and that with so much innocence that mightily pleased me." He is taken
with Pen's merriment and loose songs, but not less taken with the
sterling worth of Coventry. He is jolly with a drunken sailor, but
listens with interest and patience, as he rides the Essex roads, to the
story of a Quaker's spiritual trials and convictions. He lends a
critical ear to the discourse of kings and royal dukes. He spends an
evening at Vauxhall with "Killigrew and young Newport--loose company,"
says he, "but worth a man's being in for once, to know the nature of it,
and their manner of talk and lives." And when a rag-boy lights him home,
he examines him about his business and other ways of livelihood for
destitute children. This is almost half-way to the beginning of
philanthropy; had it only been the fashion, as it is at present, Pepys
had perhaps been a man famous for good deeds. And it is through this
quality that he rises, at times, superior to his surprising egotism; his
interest in the love affairs of others is, indeed, impersonal; he is
filled with concern for my Lady Castlemaine, whom he only knows by
sight, shares in her very jealousies, joys with her in her successes;
and it is not untrue, however strange it seems in his abrupt
presentment, that he loved his maid Jane because she was in love with
his man Tom.

Let us hear him, for once, at length: "So the women and W. Hewer and I
walked upon the Downes, where a flock of sheep was; and the most
pleasant and in