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"I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind. Your

retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the

contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is

much better, of ignorance. But with me, it is not so. Painful

recollections will intrude, which cannot, which ought not to be

repelled. I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice,

though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right,

but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good

principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit.

Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was

spoiled by my parents, who, though good themselves, (my father

particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable,) allowed,

encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing, to

care for none beyond my own family circle, to think meanly of all

the rest of the world, to wish at least to think meanly of their

sense and worth compared with my own.