ike many other maxims, treasured up in his mind rather
for show than use, and operated very little upon his conduct, however
elegantly he might sometimes explain, or however forcibly he might
inculcate them. His degradation, therefore, from the condition which he
had enjoyed with such wanton thoughtlessness, was considered by many
as an occasion of triumph. Those who had before paid their court to him
without success soon returned the contempt which they had suffered; and
they who had received favours from him, for of such favours as he could
bestow he was very liberal, did not always remember them. So much more
certain are the effects of resentment than of gratitude. It is not only
to many more pleasing to recollect those faults which place others below
them, than those virtues by which they are themselves comparatively
depressed: but it is likewise more easy to neglect than to recompense.
And though there are few who will practise a laborious virtue, there
will never be wanting multitudes that will indulge in easy vice.

Savage, however, was very little disturbed at the marks of contempt
which his ill fortune brought upon him from those whom he never
esteemed, and with whom he never considered himself as levelled by any
calamities: and though it was not without some uneasiness that he saw
some whose friendship he valued change their behaviour, he yet observed
their coldness without much emotion, considered them as the slaves of
fortune, and the worshippers of prosperity, and was more inclined to
despise them than to lament himself.

It does not appear that after this return of his wants he found mankind
equally favourable to him, as at his first appearance in the world.
His story, though in reality not less melancholy, was less affecting,
because it was no longer new. It therefore procured him no new friends,
and those that had formerly relieved him thought they might now consign
him to others. He was now likewise considered by many rather as criminal
than as unhappy, for the friends of Lord Tyrconnel, and of his mother,
were sufficiently industrious to publish his weaknesses, which were
indeed very numerous, and nothing was forgotten that might make him
either hateful or ridiculous. It cannot but be imagined that such
representations of his faults must make great numbers less sensible of
his distress; many who had only an opportunity to hear one part made
no scruple to propagate the account which they received; many