bute it
to any other than such an "honest pride," would be
derogatory to his reputation and feelings. If he meets a
business acquaintance of an higher rank than his own, his
respectful yet unembarrassed salutation at once sufficiently
expresses the disparity of their two conditions, and his
consciousness of the respectability of his own, while the
respectfully condescending notice of the Peer exhibits the
reversed flow of the same feelings. The very respect-able
man is always accurately acquainted with the hackney coach
fares to the different parts of London, and any attempt at
imposition on the part of the coachman is sure to be
detected and punished. He is never to be caught walking to
the Bank on a public holiday; and the wind must have shifted
very fast indeed, if it should happen to be in the north,
when he believes it to be in the south. The state of the
stocks is familiar to him; and as he watches their
fluctuations with an attentive eye, their history, for weeks
or even for months, is often in his memory. The very
respectable man is always employed, but never in a hurry;
and he perhaps is never better pleased than when he meets a
congenial friend, who interrupts the current of business by
the introduction of a mutual discussion of some important
failure: Mr. Such-a-one's rapid acquirement of fortune,--the
rise or fall of the funds, &c,--of all which the causes or
consequences are importantly whispered or significantly
prophesied. At home the government of the very respectable
man's family is arbitrary, but the governor is not a tyrant;
his wife has not, like the woman of fashion, any distinct
rights, but she enjoys extensive indulgencies; she has
power, but it flows from him, and though she is a
responsible, she is not a discretional, agent. The table is
to correspond with the moderation of the master, and the
matron will be scolded or reproved as it varies from the
proper medium between meanness and profusion.

The very respectable man is never less in his element than
when he is in the centre of his wife's parties, for here he
must resign the reins into her hands, and, alas! there is no
such character as the very respectable woman. All our women
would be women of fashion; and in dress and expense, in the
numbe