these
considerations. I still think the visit to Ponto's the best part of the
"Book of Snobs": does that mean that I was right when I was a child, or
does it mean that I have never grown since then, that the child is not the
man's father, but the man? and that I came into the world with all my
faculties complete, and have only learned sinsyne to be more tolerant of
boredom?...

FOOTNOTE:

[34] "Jehovah Tsidkenu," translated in the Authorised Version as "The
Lord our Righteousness" (Jeremiah xxiii. 6 and xxxiii. 16).

XIV

REFLECTIONS AND REMARKS ON HUMAN LIFE

I. JUSTICE AND JUSTIFICATION.--(1) It is the business of this life to
make excuses for others, but none for ourselves. We should be clearly
persuaded of our own misconduct, for that is the part of knowledge in
which we are most apt to be defective. (2) Even justice is no right of a
man's own, but a thing, like the king's tribute, which shall never be
his, but which he should strive to see rendered to another. None was
ever just to me; none ever will be. You may reasonably aspire to be
chief minister or sovereign pontiff: but not to be justly regarded in
your own character and acts. You know too much to be satisfied. For
justice is but an earthly currency, paid to appearances; you may see
another superficially righted; but be sure he has got too little or too
much; and in your own case rest content with what is paid you. It is
more just than you suppose; that your virtues are misunderstood is a
price you pay to keep your meannesses concealed. (3) When you seek to
justify yourself to others, you may be sure you will plead falsely. If
you fail, you have the shame of the failure; if you succeed, you will
have made too much of it, and be unjustly esteemed upon the other side.
(4) You have perhaps only one friend in the world, in whose esteem it is
worth while for you to right yourself. Justification to indifferent
persons is, at best, an impertinent intrusion. Let them think what they
please; they will be the more likely to forgive you in the end. (5) It
is a question hard to be resolved, whether you should at any time
criminate another to defend yourself. I have done it many times, and
always had a troubled conscience for my pains.

II. PARENT AND CHILD.--(1) The love of parents for their children is, of
all natural affections, the most ill-starred. It is not a love for the
person, since it begins before the person has come into the world, an