To affect to despise that which they have long ineffectually laboured
to obtain, is the only consolation to which weak minds can have
recourse, both to palliate their inability, and to take off the
bitterness of disappointment. There is a strange propensity in mankind
to this temper, and there is a numerous class of vain coxcombs in the
world, who, because they would never be thought to be disappointed in
any of their pursuits, pretend a dislike to every thing they cannot
obtain. The discarded statesman, considering the corruption of the
times, would not have any hand in the administration of affairs for
the world! The needy adventurer, and pretended patriot, would fain
persuade all who will listen to them, that they would not go cringing
and creeping into a drawing-room, for the best place the king has in
his disposal! Worthless young fellows, who find that their addresses to
virtue and beauty are rejected; and poor rogues who laugh to scorn the
rich and great, are all alike in saying, like sly Reynard, the Grapes
are sour!
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