The Arkansas advocate., 1834-06-27

and death. The cool air that pOurs over our brow in the heat of summer witila sooih- ing and delicious influence. gains elsewhere the strength of the hurrlcane, and is iiaught with death and destruction. II is so in She
 moral, as we'll as the physical world.
 We said that ogotism was wanting to no man. Wefepeat Ii. There Is flo itlsisi who does not suppose himself supenor to some around hinl-no matter how degraded he may be. There will always be a ew-to whom he confesses himself inferiqr-but beside these. he holds himself above the world around him. The writings of tie great men of the world are chiefly Inc effu- sions of egotism. The works d Byron are deiReation of his ov-n chartcief, ex- agsggesated and shaded by his ovirweenine egotism-and of this we, for ore, do net complain, for We are an adniferof Byron, and delight to have the mine of the poet spread out in its nakedness E3ore us.
 The egotisrn of the poet, hisgeyer, is not hke the egotism of other men. .isi l iioxv who have most mnutely describedthe passions and feelings of their own heaFE-the writh- ings Of pain and workings of'8agory, have been i'll their converse with tse world the most anegotstical of men. ahey are fre- quently found possessed of anexsreme and almost morbid sensibiIity Shrinking from the laying bare of their hearts In eonversa- tion-to such an extent as to nave become fault. But when the midnight lamp is burning, and they sit alone ia the dim apart ment-when the world has vanished equally from the sight and renleAlhraaee O. the Poet. then he eommanes with his thoughts. lie enters into the deepest leeesses of his mlnd--and writing becomes only a con- munlon with his own feelings. The pen moves, as 1t were, nechdlcall ly-and his thoughts are embodied.
 Ne are not certain that ct such time man Is not good and sufficient judge of his own nature. There are times when we ogerrate ourseves--and tlicn again there are times-and they come lrtquentlY- Y--ahen we undefrate ourselves. Men will attimes look into ther own nature with keen and searching eyes-and knowing intimately the vile and debasing mosiyes which have produced their conduct, they alone, while the world applauds, have a consciousness and conviction of their unWorthiness, and judge themselves more harshy than they are judged by society. Nor IS 1t true that men are not always the judges of their own works. The proud consciousness Of sHpe- riority with which Milton speaks of himself and his powers, shows thaI he knew and un- derstood the palssr os ltz sssssss1ssssIs works better than the despisng aud negIectful world in which he lived. Often, often, a poet struggles through life with knowledge of his merits, whom the world neglected while alive, and worshipped when the cold hand of Death had thrust him into the grave.
 But look around society. Every nan talks of himself, If his horses, his dogs, bis gun, his travels, and, if of fnothing else, of his very vices and wickedness-no altho' 1t may seem an anomaly in human nature, is this last an unirequeni or singular species of egotism. he broken-down gambler boasts of his despicable and criminal ex- plots--the worn out debauchee of his gal Ianty, (so he calls it, and his dissipa!ion-- and their worthy eo-partng, the skulklng thief, among his companions, boasts of pick ing locks and stealing handierciilefs.--- The old man boasts of hs experience meaning that lie has been deceived ottener than other men and shielded byit, becomes garruous and tiresome and often insolent and disgusting. The language of the pro- fession or the trade weayes itself into the conversation ol the man. The carpenter compares homey woman to q baSket of chips-the Printer talks of sidchs and cases and pi-and the tailor talks of ihread and Hiimtles. The disclaimng egotist IS equal ly as bad as the man ofextra modesy--and il is equally as ridecalous, when one is prais- ed, for him to underyalue as 10 praise his works. The man who says, when his writ ings are spoken of :. 1t Is not worth far thing" and he who says 'soh, it takes me 10 use them up." are alike egotists.
 take the quoting of Latin and French to be the most contemptible hind of ego tism, lnasmueh as 1t is pedantry, and as- similates man to parrot--and yet you shall hear men get sentences from the Latin Grammar and the Quotation Dictionary, and learn them by heart, to astonish the ga ping crowd withal. From such initiative apes, as the Liturgy says, 's Good Lord de- liver us." One man bolts out a long word in speech, and then opens his eyes and looks around to see what effect his shot produces -as though he would say, "take that and be hanged to you.o Three such words fill hls pericranum. Other men are egotsts on account of extraneous circum- stances. No family is like their family and no State like their State.
 hnd we ourselves are rebuking a fault possessed by us, in common with our broth- CTS of mankind. What else than egotisn induces us to write the Walking Gentleman Is 1t not that we hold our own wisdom .-- u,