course of Life. This Vice constitutes what we properly call Meanness; when a Man can submit to the basest Slavery, in order to gain his Ends; fawn upon those, who abuse him; and degrade himself by Intimacies and Familiarities with undeserving Inferiors. A certain Degree of generous Pride or Self-value is so requisite, that the Absence of it in the Mind displeases after the same Manner, as the Want of a Nose, Eye, or any of the most material Features of the Face or Members of the Body[1].
The Utility of COURAGE, both to the Public and to the Person possest of it, is an obvious Foundation of Merit: But to any one, who considers the Matter justly, it will appear, that this Quality has a peculiar Lustre, which it derives altogether from itself, and from that noble Elevation inseperable from it. Its Figure, drawn by Painters and by Poets, displays, in each Feature, a Sublimity
- ↑ The Absence of a Virtue may often be a Vice; and that of the highest Kind; as in the Instance of Ingratitude, as well as Meanness. Where we expect a Beauty, the Disappointment gives an uneasy Sensation, and produces a real Deformity. An Abjectness of Character, likewise, is disgustful and contemptible in another View. Where a Man has no Sense of Value in himself, we are not likely to have any higher Estimation of him. And if the same Person, who crouches to his Superiors, is insolent to his Inferiors (as often happens) this Contrariety of Behaviour, instead of correcting the former Vice, aggravates it extremely, by the Addition of a Vice still more odious. See Sect. 8.
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