, 1880-01-26
Self-COnten ted People.

looked upon as d1SagreeaOle beings. "A
grumbler is as pleasant companion as
a Scotch mist. Yet the extreme re-
verse Of character is hardly more
amiable. The man who never values
anything except it be out of his reach,
is source of trial to those who associ-
ate with him; but, on the other hand,
the over-contented man, who passes his
time in perpetual celebration OF the
excellencies of ali he possesses, is no
less Objectionable. Have we not all
known individuals of this type-people
whose children, servants, houses,
horses, carriages-all they possess, in
short are examples of perfection un
attainable by the children, servants,
houses, horses, or carriages of any one
else? George Z hot, in one of her
novels, has described family of this
kind, who never eat jam at any house
but their own because no one else is
capable of making it exactly right.
History has many examples of self
conteDted people. Queen Elizabeth
was decidedly one-at least on the sub
ject of her personal attractions. Mel
vile. the Scotch Ambassador, tells us
that she inquired particularly regard
ing the stature of his mistress, Queen
Mary. "Was she taller than herself ?"
and ON Melville replying in the affirma-
tive, Elizabeth sharply rejolned :
"Then your Queen is too tailor am
exactly of the right height"
Possibly Shakespeare had this anec
dote in his mind when he wrote the
scene where Cleopatra questions the
messenger regarding her rival, Octavia,
and contrasts the Roman lady's per
sonal attractions with her own charms.
The messenger calls Octavia Glow
voiced" which Cleopatra translates
Dull of tongue, and dwartish-
He cannot liAe her long"
Sometimes it is their moral, rather
than their personal qualities that fill
people with self-contentment. Philip
II, of Spain, reviewing his life on his
= death bed, did calmly inform his con-
fessor that he could not recall having
committed single willful sinful act
a somewhat startling assertion from the
lips of man who was the Nero of his
age. In the British Museum is mag
nihcent Bible, presented by the same
Duke OF Alva, or, as the inscription
runs: - From the best of all kings to
the best of subjects" The Inhabitants
OF the Low Countries during the six
teenth century might have questioned
the truth of Philips self-assumed title.
Kings are not the only people who
thus praise themselves. Dean Ramsey
tells an amusing anecdote of Scotch
shoemaker who fancied he had a gift
for preaching, and who was overheard
praying that, "as Providence had
called him to be great, it would also
keep him good.' Pope's account of
the ''scene of vanity" presented by
Sir Godfrey Kneller on his deathbed-
his designing his own monument, say
ing" many gross things regarding the
memory he should have behind him."
and recounting his famous dream of
the reception accorded to him in
Heaven because he was the great Sir
Godfrey Kneller from England -
must be familiar to most of our readers.
Artists and authors are proverbially
self-contented, unless they fall into the
other extreme of dependency and self
depreciation. Great men like Button
and Hogarth e1tolled their own talents
without reserve. "There are only five
geniuses in the world, remarked the for
mer-" Newton, Bacon, ,Leibnitz, Monies
quieu and myself" and Hogarth, COM
pleting his g Marriage Ia Mode" told
his friends that LIE was about to crafty
the world with such sight as they
should never have equaled." when
I am dead you will not readily meet
another John Hunter" said the great
anatom1st of the last century.
Sometimes the self contented person
rejoices in likeness generally imag-
.inary-which he discovers between
himself and some great man, dead or
living. His photographs are wonder
fully like the portraits of Lord Byron
or the Duke of Wellington-at least SO
he assures his friends. Swift once
rebelled against this kind of vanity in
his friend Ambrose Phillips, who be-
lieved himself to be an exact likeness
of julius Caesar, and who was fond of
telling people that the great conqueror
was ga man of lean make, of pale COM
plexion, about five feet ven inches
high, and extremely neat in his dress "
an exact description of Phillips him
self. The sarcastic Dean listened pa
tiently, and then dryly remarked that
forh is part he always imagined Caesar
to have been a plump man, just five
feet five inches high, and not very
neatly dressed in black gown with
pudding sleeves
Sir Godfrey Kneller is one of the
fairest specimens from the ranks OF the
self-contented, for his self-cemplacency
was all-embracing extending from his
deep admiration for his own pictures to