leraverat_"); but are we not of a like
spirit, if any dissatisfaction steals over our minds at seeing others
exempt from those sufferings, which in our own career fell heavily upon
us. It is difficult to dislodge this kind of selfishness from the heart.
Indeed, there can hardly be a surer symptom of sound benevolence in a
man, than his taking pleasure in those paths being smoothened which he
will never have to traverse again: I do not say in making them
smoother--it is much easier to reconcile himself to that--but in their
being made so without his interference.

It would be well, indeed, if selfishness came into play on those
occasions only where self is really concerned.

* * * * *

There is nothing which a wise employer will have more at heart than to
gain the confidence of those under him. The essential requisites on his
part are truth and kindness. These qualities may, however, belong in a
high degree to persons who fail to gain the confidence of their
dependents. In domestic life, confidence may be prevented by fits of
capricious passion on the part of the ruling powers; and a man who, in
all important matters, acts justly and kindly towards his family, may be
deprived of their confidence by his weakness of temper in little things.
For instance, you meet with persons who fall into a violent way of
talking about all that offends them in their dependents; and who express
themselves with as much anger about trivial inadvertencies as about
serious moral offences. In the course of the same day that they have
given way to some outbreak of temper, they may act with great self-denial
and watchful kindness; but they can hardly expect their subordinates to
be at ease with them. Another defect which prevents confidence, is a
certain sterility of character, which does not allow of sympathy with
other people's fancies and pursuits. A man of this character does not
understand any likings but his own. He will be kind to you, if you will
be happy in his way; but he has nothing but ridicule or coldness for any
thing which does not suit him. This imperfection of sympathy, which
prevents an equal from becoming a friend, may easily make a superior into
a despot. Indeed, I almost doubt whether the head of a family does not
do more mischief if he is unsympathetic, than even if he were unjust.
The triumph of domestic rule is for the master's presence not to be felt
as a restraint.

In a larg