e been so
provoked if they had not laughed at his misfortunes, and he thought it
very hard to be wetted and ridiculed both." "But," replied Mr Barlow,
"did their noise or laughter do you any great damage, that you
endeavoured to return it so roughly?" Tommy answered, "that he must own
it did not do him any hurt, or give him any pain." "Why, then," said Mr
Barlow, "I do not see the justice of your returning it in that manner."
"But," said Tommy, "it is so provoking to be laughed at!" "There are two
ways of remedying that," replied Mr Barlow, "either not doing such
things as will expose you to ridicule, or by learning to bear it with a
little more patience." "But," said Tommy, "I do not think that anybody
can bear it with patience." "All the world," said Mr Barlow, "are not
quite so passionate as you are. It is not long ago that you were
speaking of the poor Greenlanders with great contempt, and fancying them
much inferior to yourself; yet those poor _barbarians_, as you called
them, that live upon fish, and are not brought up like gentlemen's sons,
are capable of giving you a lesson that would be of the greatest service
if you would but observe it." "What is that, sir?" inquired Tommy.
"They are brought up to so much moderation and self-command," said Mr
Barlow, "that they never give way to those sudden impulses of passion
that are common among the Europeans; and when they observe their violent
gestures, their angry words, their countenances inflamed with wrath,
they feel for them the greatest contempt, and say they must have been
very badly educated. As to themselves, if any person think himself
ill-used by another, without putting himself into any passion upon the
occasion, he defies his foe to meet him at a particular time, before all
their mutual acquaintance."

_Tommy._--But then I suppose they fight; and that is being as passionate
as I was.

_Mr Barlow._--I am sorry that you, who pretend to have been so well
brought up, should have recourse to the example of the Greenlanders, in
order to justify your own conduct; but in this case you are mistaken,
for the barbarians are a great deal wiser than young gentlemen. The
person who thinks himself injured does indeed challenge his antagonist,
but it is to a very different sort of combat from what you imagine. Both
parties appear at the appointed time, and each surrounded with a company
of his particular friends. The place where they assemble is generally
the middle of o