The Best of the Worlds Classics, Restricted to Prose | Page 2

I The Ambitions of the Vicar's Family. (From "The Vicar of
Wakefield")
II Sagacity in Insects. (From "The Bee")
III A Chinaman's View of London. (From the "Citizen of the World")
EDMUND BURKE--(Born in 1729, died in 1797.)
I The Principles of Good Taste. (From "The Sublime and Beautiful")
II A Letter to a Noble Lord
III On the Death of His Son
IV Marie Antoinette. (From the "Reflections on the Revolution in
France")
WILLIAM COWPER--(Born in 1731, died in 1800.)
I Of Keeping One's Self Employed. (A Letter to John Newton)
II Of Johnson's Treatment of Milton. (Letter to the Rev. William
Unwin)
III On the Publication of His Books. (Letter to the Rev. William
Unwin)

EDWARD GIBBON--(Born in 1737, died in 1794.)
I The Romance of His Youth. (From the "Memoirs")
II The Inception and Completion of the "Decline and Fall." (From the
"Memoirs")
III The Fall of Zenobia. (From "The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire")
IV Alaric's Entry into Rome. (From "The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire")
V The Death of Hosein. (From "The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire")
VI The Causes of the Destruction of the City of Rome. (From "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire")

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND--II
1672-1800

SIR RICHARD STEELE
Born in Ireland in 1672; died in Wales in 1729; companion of Addison
at Oxford; served in the army in 1694, becoming a captain; elected to
Parliament, but expelled for using seditious language; knighted under
George I; quarreled with Addison in 1719; founded the Tatler, and next
to Addison, was the chief writer for the Spectator.

I
OF COMPANIONS AND FLATTERERS

An old acquaintance who met me this morning seemed overjoyed to
see me, and told me I looked as well as he had known me do these forty
years; but, continued he, not quite the man you were when we visited
together at Lady Brightly's. Oh! Isaac, those days are over. Do you
think there are any such fine creatures now living as we then conversed
with? He went on with a thousand incoherent circumstances, which, in
his imagination, must needs please me; but they had the quite contrary
effect. The flattery with which he began, in telling me how well I wore,
was not disagreeable; but his indiscreet mention of a set of
acquaintance we had outlived, recalled ten thousand things to my
memory, which made me reflect upon my present condition with regret.
Had he indeed been so kind as, after a long absence, to felicitate me
upon an indolent and easy old age, and mentioned how much he and I
had to thank for, who at our time of day could walk firmly, eat heartily
and converse cheerfully, he had kept up my pleasure in myself. But of
all mankind, there are none so shocking as these injudicious civil
people. They ordinarily begin upon something that they know must be
a satisfaction; but then, for fear of the imputation of flattery, they
follow it with the last thing in the world of which you would be
reminded. It is this that perplexes civil persons. The reason that there is
such a general outcry among us against flatterers is that there are so
very few good ones. It is the nicest art in this life, and is a part of
eloquence which does not want the preparation that is necessary to all
other parts of it, that your audience should be your well-wishers; for
praise from an enemy is the most pleasing of all commendations.
It is generally to be observed, that the person most agreeable to a man
for a constancy, is he that has no shining qualities, but is a certain
degree above great imperfections, whom he can live with as his inferior,
and who will either overlook or not observe his little defects. Such an
easy companion as this, either now and then throws out a little flattery,
or lets a man silently flatter himself in his superiority to him. If you
take notice, there is hardly a rich man in the world who has not such a
led friend of small consideration, who is a darling for his insignificancy.
It is a great ease to have one in our own shape a species below us, and
who, without being listed in our service, is by nature of our retinue.
These dependents are of excellent use on a rainy day, or when a man

has not a mind to dress; or to exclude solitude, when one has neither a
mind to that nor to company. There are of this good-natured order who
are so kind to divide themselves, and do these good offices to many.
Five or six of them visit a whole quarter of the town, and