plicable to any uneasy situation.

Let every man lay his hand upon his heart, and not take
white for black, nor black for white; for we are all as God
made us, and oftentimes a great deal worse.

"First and foremost, then," said Sancho, "the common people take your
worship for a downright madman, and me for no less a fool. The gentry
say that, not content to keep to your own proper rank of a gentleman,
you call yourself Don, and set up for a knight, with no more than a
paltry vineyard and a couple of acres of land. The cavaliers say they do
not choose to be vied with by those country squires who clout their
shoes, and take up the fallen stitches of their black stockings with
green silk."

"That," said Don Quixote, "is no reflection upon me; for I always go
well clad, and my apparel is never patched; a little torn it may be, but
more by the fretting of my armor than by time."

"As to your valor, courtesy, achievements, and undertakings," continued
Sancho, "there are many different opinions. Some say you are mad, but
humorous; others, valiant, but unfortunate; others, courteous, but
absurd; and thus they pull us to pieces, till they leave neither your
worship nor me a single feather upon our backs."

"Take notice, Sancho," said Don Quixote, "that, when virtue exists in an
eminent degree, it is always persecuted."

"There cannot be a more legitimate source of gratification to a virtuous
and distinguished man," said Don Quixote, "than to have his good name
celebrated during his lifetime, and circulated over different nations; I
say his good name, for if it were otherwise than good, death in any
shape would be preferable."

To be represented otherwise than with approbation is worse
than the worst of deaths.

There are as many different opinions as there are different
tastes.

_Pedir cotufas en el golfo_, signifies to look for truffles
in the sea, a proverb applicable to those who are too
sanguine in their expectations and unreasonable in their
desires.

"There is no necessity for recording actions which are
prejudicial to the hero, without being essential to the
history. It is not to be supposed that AEneas was in all his
actions so pure as Virgil represents him, nor Ulysses so
uniformly prudent as he is described by Homer."

"True," replied Sampson; "but it is one thing to write as a poet, and
another to write as an historian. The poet may say or sing, not as
things were