to attribute
any appearance of good conduct to the meanest possible motive. It is a
policy that makes a man afraid of his best friends. He feels that every
draft he makes upon human honor, or affection, is liable to be cashed
with counterfeit bills. If there were no alternative between the
cleverness that suspects everybody, and the credulity that trusts
everybody, I think I had rather be one of the dupes than one of the
oracles. For, really, there is less misery in being cheated than in that
kind of wisdom which perceives, or thinks it perceives, that all mankind
are cheats. But, while simple fact forbids our assuming either of these
extremes, we must, nevertheless, in reasoning upon the phenomena of
human conduct, allow large scope for the influence of which I am now
treating. For, as I have already intimated, we shall find it lurking
under numerous forms. In discussing the question of Slavery, for
instance, it is often said--that it is for the interest of the master to
take good care of his human as he does of his brute stock--to see that
they are well-fed, clothed, &c. And so it is for his _interest_ to do
this. But how often does the lust for supremacy over-ride interest
itself! How often does an imperious personality thrust itself forward
in the most absurd ways, damaging its own property and welfare, just as
a boy breaks his top, or a balked rider shoots his horse, or an
independent congregationalist locks his pew-door, as much as to
say--"There, the world knows one thing about me, at least. It knows that
I am _master_ and _owner_ here!"

But I observe, further, that, while this desire for Precedence is common
among men of all conditions, there are some modes of its expression
which are peculiarly excited in a democratic form of society. That which
is the open glory of a community like ours, is with many a secret
vexation and shame. People boast here of the equality of our
institutions, and then try their best to break up the social level. In a
genuine Aristocracy, where they have endeavored to preserve a
gulf-stream of noble blood in the midst of the plebeian Atlantic, and a
man holds his distinction by the color of the bark on his family tree,
and the kind of sap that circulates through it, there is no danger of
any unpleasant mistakes. The hard palm of Labor may cross the gloved
hand of Leisure, and nobody will suspect that the select is too
familiar with the vulgar. Consequently, there is a good deal of
affa