qualis ab incepto
, it were nothing. But she is a woman by herself, and has done more than all the rest of them together, intellectually;—she ought to have been a man. She
flatters
me very prettily in her note;—but I
know
it. The reason that adulation is not displeasing is, that, though untrue, it shows one to be of consequence enough, in one way or other, to induce people to lie, to make us their friend:—that is their concern.
——
, I hear, thriving on the repute of a
pun