I think a proud man cannot love his fellow-creatures, or he would not find so much pleasure in humbling them.
CHARLES.
There appears a sort of cruelty in pride. Might not a poor beggar for instance thus address a haughty rich man: “How have I deserved you should look down upon me with such contempt. You are rich, I am poor; this is your good luck and my misfortune, but you should not make it heavier by your scorn, as I certainly have not injured you. If I ask you for any thing you may refuse me, and I must be content. I undergo many difficulties; go on foot in the rain, without sufficient covering to screen me from the keen wind; benumbed with cold, and almost sinking under my misery: you, on the contrary, ride in a carriage, and feel none of these inconveniences. I bow civilly to you, and you turn away your head with disgust, while the wheels of your coach throw the dirt in my face. Your cruel contempt adds to my sufferings, when a smile would have lightened them. You despise my poverty, and force me to recollect that one man is as good as another, in order to comfort myself and not repine at my fate. If you keep your money, I shall not, I cannot, contest with you. Riches fell to your lot, and I do not covet them; but at least pity me; I eat a hard crust, but am still a man, and can feel your cruel inhumanity.”
WILLIAM.
And he ought, besides, to think that the poor and miserable man whom he despises may be exalted far above him in another world, but that period appears very far off to those who live in splendour.
CHARLES.
Far off—a year, a day, an hour, a single moment may destroy all their hopes, and from a palace they may be removed to the grave; where all their grandeur shall vanish away from their sight as nothing. The rich go to their stately tombs, the poor to their humble sod; but they are no more sensible of a difference.——This conversation made me grave, Miss Emilia; and should I add any more I might perhaps continue to moralize.
We are going this evening to the play, and your brother has invited young Landbergen to be of the party; he has his reformation very much at heart. Allow me to assure you that I am your sincere friend,
WILLIAM.