parting advice), if you find this base and baleful passion, which the
poet calls 'the eldest born of hell;' if you find it creeping into your
heart, be it your care to banish it at once and for ever; for, if once
it nestle there, farewell to all the good which nature has enabled you
to do, and to your peace into the bargain. It has pleased God to make an
unequal distribution of talent, of industry, of perseverance, of a
capacity to labour, of all the qualities that give men distinction. We
have not been our own makers: it is no fault in you that nature has
placed him above you, and, surely, it is no fault in him; and would you
_punish_ him on account, and only on account, of his pre-eminence! If
you have read this book you will startle with horror at the thought: you
will, as to public matters, act with zeal and with good humour, though
the place you occupy be far removed from the first; you will support
with the best of your abilities others, who, from whatever circumstance,
may happen to take the lead; you will not suffer even the consciousness
and the certainty of your own superior talents to urge you to do any
thing which might by possibility be injurious to your country's cause;
you will be forbearing under the aggressions of ignorance, conceit,
arrogance, and even the blackest of ingratitude superadded, if by
resenting these you endanger the general good; and, above all things,
you will have the justice to bear in mind, that that country which gave
you birth, is, to the last hour of your capability, entitled to your
exertions in her behalf, and that you ought not, by acts of commission
or of omission, to visit upon her the wrongs which may have been
inflicted on you by the envy and malice of individuals. Love of one's
native soil is a feeling which nature has implanted in the human breast,
and that has always been peculiarly strong in the breasts of Englishmen.
God has given us a country of which to be proud, and that freedom,
greatness and renown, which were handed down to us by our wise and brave
forefathers, bid us perish to the last man, rather than suffer the land
of their graves to become a land of slavery, impotence and dishonour.
355. In the words with which I concluded my English Grammar, which I
addressed to my son James, I conclude my advice to you. 'With English
and French on your tongue and in your pen, you have a resource, not only
greatly valuable in itself, but a resource that you can be deprived of
by none of those changes and chances which deprive men of pecuniary
possessions, and which, in some cases, make the purse-proud man of
yesterday a crawling sycophant to-day. Health, without which life is not
worth having, you will hardly fail to secure by early rising, exercise,
sobriety, and abstemiousness as to food. Happiness, or misery, is in the
_mind_. It is the mind that lives; and the length of life ought to be
measured by the number and importance of our ideas, and not by the
number of our days. Never, therefore, esteem men merely on account of
their riches or their station. Respect goodness, find it where you may.
Honour talent wherever you behold it unassociated with vice; but, honour
it most when accompanied with exertion, and especially when exerted in
the cause of truth and justice; and, above all things, hold it in
honour, when it steps forward to protect defenceless innocence against
the attacks of powerful guilt.' These words, addressed to my own son, I
now, in taking my leave, address to you. Be just, be industrious, be
sober, and be happy; and the hope that these effects will, in some
degree, have been caused by this little work, will add to the happiness
of
Your friend and humble servant,
WM. COBBETT.
Kensington, 25th Aug. 1830.