I. Of all virtues, magnanimity is the rarest. There are a hundred persons of merit for one who willingly acknowledges it in another.
II. It is often harder to praise a friend than an enemy. By the last we may acquire a reputation for candour; by the first we only seem to discharge a debt, and are liable to a suspicion of partiality. Besides, though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration; and the shining points of character are not those we chiefly wish to dwell upon. Our habitual impression of any one is very different from the light in which he would choose to appear before the public. We think of him as a friend: we must forget that he is one, before we can extol him to others.
III. To speak highly of one with whom we are intimate, is a species of egotism. Our modesty as well as our jealousy teaches us caution on this subject.
IV. What makes it so difficult to do justice to others is, that we are hardly sensible of merit, unless it falls in with our own views and line of pursuit; and where this is the case, it interferes with our own pretensions. To be forward to praise others, implies either great eminence, that can afford to part with applause; or great quickness of discernment, with confidence in our own judgments; or great sincerity and love of truth, getting the better of our self-love.
V. Many persons are so narrow in this respect, that they cannot bring themselves to allow the most trifling merit in any one else. This is not altogether ill-nature, but a meanness of spirit or want of confidence in themselves, which is upset and kicks the beam, if the smallest particle of praise is thrown into another’s scale. They are poor feeble insects tottering along the road to fame, that are crushed by the shadow of opposition, or stopped by a whisper of rivalship.
VI. There are persons, not only whose praise, but whose very names we cannot bear to hear.
VII. There are people who cannot praise a friend for the life of them. With every effort and all the good-will in the world, they shrink from the task through a want of mental courage; as some people shudder at plunging into a cold-bath from weak nerves.
VIII. Others praise you behind your back, who will not, on any account, do so to your face. Is it that they are afraid of being taken for flatterers?—Or that they had rather any one else should know they think well of you than yourself;—as a rival is the last person we should wish to hear the favourable opinion of a mistress, because it gives him most pleasure?
IX. To deny undoubted merit in others, is to deny its existence altogether, and consequently our own. The example of illiberality we set is easily turned against ourselves.
X. Magnanimity is often concealed under an appearance of shyness, and even poverty of spirit. Heroes, according to Rousseau, are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; as the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.