Pride, which was implanted in the human breast for wise purposes,
should carefully be directed aright. It was intended only to exalt the
minds of all ranks and conditions of men, to that pitch, which will
make them spurn at, and despise the doing of a mean or dishonourable
action; and it is only misapplied, when it puffs up those whom fortune
has placed in high stations, or overloaded with riches, and tempts
them to look down with derision on those below them. The higher a man
is exalted in life, but especially if he have risen by dishonourable
means, the more unlikely it is that he will escape a storm, or the
mischiefs to which he may be exposed in his public capacity, in any
convulsion that may befal his country. When public justice overtakes
him, and he finds the day of reckoning near at hand, the honest monitor
within will put him in mind of his true situation, and he will then be
enabled to make a just comparison between his own lofty station, and
that of the poor, but honest, man.
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