s an artificial
taste and natural genius; and repose on the admiration of verses which
derive their odour from the scent of rose leaves inserted between the
pages, and their polish from the smoothness of the paper on which they
are printed. They, and such writers as Decker, and Webster, Beaumont
and Fletcher, Ford and Marlowe, move in different orbits of the human
intellect, and need never jostle.

(4) The intelligent reader will be pleased to understand that there is
here a tacit allusion to Squire Western's significant phrase of _Hanover
Rats._

(5) Of the two the latter alternative is more likely to happen. We abuse
and imitate them. They laugh at, but do not imitate us.

(6) The title of _Ultra-Crepidarian critics_ has been given to a variety
of this species.

ESSAY VII. ON GREAT AND LITTLE THINGS

These little things are great to little man.
--Goldsmith.

The great and the little have, no doubt, a real existence in the nature
of things; but they both find pretty much the same level in the mind of
man. It is a common measure, which does not always accommodate itself to
the size and importance of the objects it represents. It has a certain
interest to spare for certain things (and no more) according to its
humour and capacity; and neither likes to be stinted in its allowance,
nor to muster up an unusual share of sympathy, just as the occasion may
require. Perhaps, if we could recollect distinctly, we should discover
that the two things that have affected us most in the course of our
lives have been, one of them of the greatest, and the other of
the smallest possible consequence. To let that pass as too fine a
speculation, we know well enough that very trifling circumstances do
give us great and daily annoyance, and as often prove too much for our
philosophy and forbearance, as matters of the highest moment. A lump of
soot spoiling a man's dinner, a plate of toast falling in the ashes, the
being disappointed of a ribbon to a cap or a ticket for a ball, have led
to serious and almost tragical consequences. Friends not unfrequently
fall out and never meet again for some idle misunderstanding, 'some
trick not worth an egg,' who have stood the shock of serious differences
of opinion and clashing interests in life; and there is an excellent
paper in the _Tatler,_ to prove that if a married couple do not quarrel
about some point in the first instance not worth contesting, they will
seldom find an opportuni