herwise. What man can withstand this
prodigious temptation? Inspired by what is called a noble emulation,
some people grasp at honours and win them; others, too weak or mean,
blindly admire and grovel before those who have gained them; others, not
being able to acquire them, furiously hate, abuse, and envy. There are
only a few bland and not-in-the-least-conceited philosophers, who
can behold the state of society, viz., Toadyism, organised:--base
Man-and-Mammon worship, instituted by command of law:--Snobbishness, in
a word, perpetuated,--and mark the phenomenon calmly. And of these calm
moralists, is there one, I wonder, whose heart would not throb with
pleasure if he could be seen walking arm-in-arm with a couple of dukes
down Pall Mall? No it is impossible in our condition of society, not to
be sometimes a Snob.

On one hand it encourages the commoner to be snobbishly mean, and the
noble to be snobbishly arrogant. When a noble marchioness writes in
her travels about the hard necessity under which steam-boat travellers
labour of being brought into contact 'with all sorts and conditions of
people:' implying that a fellowship with God's creatures is disagreeable
to to her Ladyship, who is their superior:--when, I say, the Marchioness
of ---- writes in this fashion, we must consider that out of her natural
heart it would have been impossible for any woman to have had such a
sentiment; but that the habit of truckling and cringing, which all
who surround her have adopted towards this beautiful and magnificent
lady,--this proprietor of so many black and other diamonds,--has really
induced her to believe that she is the superior of the world in general:
and that people are not to associate with her except awfully at a
distance. I recollect being once at the city of Grand Cairo, through
which a European Royal Prince was passing India-wards. One night at the
inn there was a great disturbance: a man had drowned himself in the well
hard by: all the inhabitants of the hotel came bustling into the Court,
and amongst others your humble servant, who asked of a certain young man
the reason of the disturbance. How was I to know that this young gent
was a prince? He had not his crown and sceptre on: he was dressed in a
white jacket and felt hat: but he looked surprised at anybody speaking
to him: answered an unintelligible monosyllable, and--BECKONED HIS
AID-DE-CAMP TO COME AND SPEAK TO ME. It is our fault, not that of the
great, that