least without any danger of incurring its

censure.

2. We have next to consider those claims, or rather pretensions, that are grounded on personal character; and particularly on a man's honest intentions and abilities to serve his country. Such pretensions a good and prudent citizen will not be eager to bring forward, and for the following, among other

reasons.

(1.) Because whatever his honesty may be, he feels it is too imperfect and assailable to permit him to be proud or to make a boast of it; and however considerable may be his abilities, he is sensible they must often be found unequal to the intricacy and exigency of affairs. Besides, his character for parts and integrity is either already established, or it is not; if the former, he has no need eagerly to display it himself; and, if the latter, such ostentation, though it may take with the populace, will not help to recommend him to the countenance and esteem of the more discerning citizens, who are aware, that men of suspicious character are most apt to boast of their probity, and

that showy and superficial wits are the readiest to trumpet their extraordinary parts and abilities. This caution against an ostentatious humour was perhaps never more necessary than at present, when, among the numbers who step forward to proclaim their own merits, there are found some men of undoubted sense and understanding, and we may hope also of general integrity; who, if they fall short of the great Roman orator in genius, learning, and eloquence, may, at least, be allowed to surpass him in the faculty of which we are speaking, and in which too, he was so pre-eminent. Such authorities, however, should be so far from weighing with a sober citizen in favour of this vaunting disposition, which he must have observed to be generally followed with miscarriage and dishonour; that they should rather serve to confirm him more strongly in the salutary opinion, that modesty, as well as honesty, is, on the whole, the best policy.

(2.) Another reason against a forwardness to advance public pretensions founded on personal qualities, is the difficulty of ascer

taining their value. Though a man's honesty and capacity may in general be acknowledged, the particular degree of these qualities, or whether they are such as may entitle him to some specific rank or office in the state, may be matter of various opinion. Hence it becomes a good citizen to be reserved and modest in his estimate of his own merits; and not hastily to suppose himself injured, though they should not be admitted to the extent at which he had rated them. Even though he should be appointed by his country to some station manifestly beneath his deserts, or to one less honourable than what he had before occupied, let him not sullenly refuse it on these accounts; nor imagine that by its acceptance he would suffer any degradation; but rather, in such a case, let him nobly think and say with the excellent Plutarch, who, after he had been preceptor to the emperor Trajan, and enjoyed the dignity of the consulate; upon being nominated scavenger to the city, replied to one who reproached him with the meanness of the office, "That

he thought nothing mean by which he could serve the republic *.".

In cases of public competition, it may be no less difficult to ascertain the comparative merits of a particular candidate. That a man has twice the property of another, that he is of a more honourable descent, or that he has had the advantage of a more liberal education, may be capable of satisfactory proof; but that he has more honesty or more ability for public service, might be a point not so easily decided. A sober citizen will therefore be slow to advance a pretension of so disputable a nature; aware how much every man is partial in his own cause, he will be jealous of himself and liberal to others, especially to a competitor; to whose just praise he will pay his willing tribute, and whose failings, either he will not mark, or mark without aggravation. Now suppose a man, under the influence of these principles, and desirous to serve his country, to present himself a candidate

Plut. Political Precepts.

for a seat in parliament; he will present himself with the consciousness of one who means well, yet not presuming upon his merits; neither lavish of professions in his own favour, nor disparaging to his opponents; and should his offers of service be ultimately rejected, he will retire in the spirit of the generous Spartan Pæderatus, who, upon being excluded from the noble band of heroes that was chosen to defend the pass at Thermopylæ, returned home exulting, that there were found in Sparta three hundred citizens more worthy than himself*.

3. Lastly, we have to consider those claims that are founded on the natural rights of man; or on that liberty with which every one is invested, when regarded only as an insulated individual, of doing whatever is not prohibited by some divine law.

(1.) As all government, in its essence, implies an abridgment of our natural rights,

* Plut. Life of Lycurgus.