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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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of sense * thus answered : * Pray , sir , do me the favour to return my compliments to the Bishop ; and tell his Lordship , that if the presents , which people generally
make to each other , were all of then * such as his Lordship has made me , they would really be much richer than they now are . However , sir , I cannot but esteem myself greatly obliged to the Bishop for this polite instance of his kindness and
friendship for me ; and you may assure his Lordship , I will most undoubtedly use my utmost endeavours to correct this failing of mine for the future . In the meantime , sir , I take my leave of you , and wish you a safe and pleasant ride home / "
The translator has the following note on this story : — " It may be questioned , whether the freedom of an English University , where a man would be told of his foibles with an honest laugh , and a thump on the back , would not have shocked Count
Richard less than this ceremonious management of the affair . " —p , 23 . The virtue of the thump on the back would certainly
depend on the honesty of the laugh ; that is to say , on the real kindness of it , and the willingness of the laugher to undergo a similar admonition ; but motives and results on these
occasions are equally problematical ; and upon the whole , that Sort Of manual of politeness is not to be commended . i With regard to the exquisite delicacy of the admonisher of Count Richard , exquisite it was to # certain literal extent ,
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and not without much that is spiritual . It was sought out , and elaborate enough ; and above all , the adviser did not forget to dwell upon the good
qualities of the person advised , and make the fault as nothing in comparison . For as it has been well observed by a late philosopher ( Godwin ) that " advice is not disliked for
its own sake , but because so few people know how to give it , " so the ignorance generally shown by advisers consists in not taking care to do justice to the merits of the other party , and sheathing the wound to the self-love in all the balm
possible . And it must ; be owned , that for the most part advisers are highly in want of advice themselves , and do but thrust their pragmatical egotism in the teeth * of the vanity they are hurting . Now ,
without supposing that the exquisite Bishop and his messenger , who gave the advice to Count Pochard , were not men of really good breeding in most respects , or that the latter in particular did not deserve the encomiums
bestowed on him by Monsignore della Casa , we venture , with infinite apologies and selfabasements before the elegant ghost of his memory , to think ,
that on the present occasion , he and his employer failed in one great point ; to wit , that of giving the Count to understand , that they themselves were persons who failed , or in the course
of their experience had failed , in some nice points of behaviour ; otherwise ( so we < joji-
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? K $ S Retrospective Review .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 1, 1837, page 362, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1837/page/66/
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