Wesley Corpus

[The following is Boscawen's translation of this quotation from Horace: -- Eutrapelus, whome'er he chose To ruin, deck'd in costly clothes." -- EDIT.] He could not then but imagine himself to be as much better as he was finer than his neighbour. And how many thousands, not only lords and gentlemen, in England, but honest tradesmen, argue the same way! inferring the superior value of their persons from the value of their clothes! 10. "But may not one man be as proud, though clad in sackcloth, as another is, though clad in cloth of gold" As this argument meets us at every turn, and is supposed to be unanswerable, it will be worth while to answer it once for all, and to show the utter emptiness of it. "May not, then, one clad in sackcloth," you ask, "be as proud as he that is clad in cloth of gold" I answer, Certainly he may: I suppose no one doubts of it. And what inference can you draw from this Take a parallel case. One man that drinks a cup of wholesome wine, may be as sick as another that drinks poison: But does this prove that the poison has no more tendency to hurt a man than the wine Or does it excuse any man for taking what has a natural tendency to make him sick Now, to apply: Experience shows that fine clothes have a natural tendency to make a man sick of pride; plain clothes have not. Although it is true, you may be sick of pride in these also, yet they have no natural tendency either to cause or increase this sickness. Therefore, all that desire to be clothed with humility, abstain from that poison.