Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-01-26
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TIE VANITY or GREzr PEOPLE.

selves in order to gain the esteem of
others, though 1t was not necessary
TO be disgusting egotist. We
should bethankful that the world is
not mirror, and that we don't
know just what our friends think of
us. Thanks to the illusions that
make US believe we are greater
than we are. We think we are do
ing great good and thus do a lit
tie good. III is difficult to distin-
guish self appreciation and real van
ity, but the selfish conceit is what is
disgusting.
AS examples of the vanity of
great men, Cicero, when asked con-
corning his ancestry, said that it
commenced with himself; Demo-
athenes was pleased because wa
ter carrier pointed him out, and
John Hunter said the world had
produced four great men besides
himself.
Gibbons said: 81 am the great
est historian. No one can ever
equal me-" The speaker said that
love of praise is malady, and the
history of vanity the history of the
/ greatest men of the world. One Gel
/ EOtdlCu HlICtI
into two classes, "ThoSe who had
read his work and those who had
not" Voltaire, whose ruling pas
sion was vanity, threw his manu-
script into the fire when some one
criticised him and it was with difficult
ty, rescued. he also said that twelve
men built up the Christianity of the
world. aud he proposed to show
how one man could destroy it.
Lamartine, after extolling his
mother, and ascribing to her every
virtue. said he was just like her.
Victor Hugo, the greatest living
egotist, said once that he could over
awe God by his personal appear
ance. Alfonso, king of Spain, criti.
cised the way the world was made
and said there were some things on
which he could greatly improve.
| He was like certain other person
who would have made health con-
tagiOus and smallpox not SO. The
greatest of all, Shakespeare, seemed
| to stand out isolated as the man
who was not an egotist. Bacon re-
| fused to acknowledge some of his
own works. Ben johnson was
vain and irascible and wrote
mean ode when one of his plays
was criticised and failed. Herrick,
the poet priest, said in one of his
works that he read his own monu-
ment in the verse he wrote. Milton
had noble pride, conviction of
his own endowments, which all
allowed. Dryden was vain, and
said he had written the finest ode
ever penned. Pope said that men
were afraid of him. The hippopOta-
mus of literature, Sam. johnson,
was insufferably cOnceited, and once |
said that when he had given his
opinion on anything that ought to
settle it. vet hadn't it been for
"BOozy" (BosWelD, who made him
famous in the finest and yet the
worst biography, where would have
Johnson been to-day? And poor
Goldsmith, whom no one can help
lovingAhow vain he was! He once
even became jealous of puppy
that amused a crowd jumping over |
stick, and claimed that he could |
do it better. So when he got home |
he nearly broke one of his shins
trying to do it. Once he was walk |
ing along the street with Burke and |
they saw crowd attracted by a |
scene. Goldsmith remarked what |
a set of fools they were to look at |
such a thing when man of his tai |
ent was there. Yet, with all his
foley who could help loving the
open hearted Irishman! Young |
was the most pOmpOus man in liter |
ature and tried to act so modest that |
it became bombast. Wordsworth.
though a grand and simple hearted
old man, was ludicrousiy vain. He.
would stop little child and tell it /
to look at him well and then tell I
his folks that he had seen the poet I
Wordsworth. He also said at one
time to gathering that he had
never been funny but once in his
life. A man came along and ask
ed him if he had seen his wife
"My dear fellow, didn't know
you had wife," said the poet. The
crowd waited for the joke, and per-
ceiving that it was finished broke
into immoderate laughter, the old
man, thinking it was inciled by the
story, was wonderfully pleased.
TennysOn, after reading one of his
own poems to visitor, said that he
considered it the finest lyric utter
ance ever written. All of once
famous coterie of literary characters
were crotists. Jeffries was a COM
sumate flirt with the women. Bull
wer liked to lounge in a drawing
room or be lolIing at his ease, and
Landseer was specimen of vanity
worse than a woman. EgOtiSm
could be considered a first cousin to
vanity. One of the best versions of
a bore ever given was ''a person
who wanted to talk about himself
when you want to talk about your
SELF" Lord Byron continually
wrote OF himself as horrid mon
ster, and painted himself in the
most hideous colorS. This was van
ity, and it could be plainly seen
that he was writing only of himself
in "Chide Harolde," don Juan"
and other of his works.
Bonaparte, who eXiled Madame
de Stale because she criticised him,
was so vain as to call himself the
great BOnaparte, and his vanity was ,
the cause of his downfall. Madame
de Steal, though she had big feet, [
was, like Lady Morgan, proud of {
her appearance, and her dress, and |
her works. Erskin was the typical
egotist, and always tried to turn
the conversation on himself. Some i
one had said that when anything 6
Of his was published the printer had l
TO order several new fonts Of type 8
to get enough els" Dickens was {
1btrusive in his vanity. He wore t
and in his letters spoke i
IF his own books and how a certain (
nan he met had read all of his /
works. t
Margaret Fuller was fond of the i
L" and the "me." and once re- {
marked: 81 have now met all the a
ntellects of the country, and find I
loneOf them comparable to ne::'
Walt Whitman is almost indecent i
n his vanity, and Goodwin married C
he widow in week who looked \
)ut of window and said, ''Is il n
possible l behold the immortal q
Lee, known as the h
Mad Poet" was sane enough I
when he wrote that there was moth y
ng next to love transports the poet n
ike commencing in the right place h
A flor q Mics