PRIDE, a term indicating inordinate and unreasonable self-esteem, attended with insolence and rude treatment of others. It is frequently confounded with vanity, and some times with dignity; but to the former passion it has no resemblance, and in many circumstances it differs from the latter. Vanity is the parent of loquacious boasting; and the person subject to it, if his pretences be admitted, has no inclination to insult the company. The proud man, on the other hand, is naturally silent, and, wrapt up in his own importance; he seldom speaks except to make his audience feel their inferiority. It is this circumstance which distinguishes pride from dignity. Every man, possesed of great powers of mind, is conscious of them, and feels that he holds a higher rank in the scale of existence than he whose powers are inferior. If he recollect, at the same time, that he has nothing which he did not receive, and that his superiority is owing to the good pleasure of Him who forms his creatures differently, as the potter forms his clay, he will be so far from insulting his inferiors, that, when necessarily in company with them, he will bear with their foibles, and, as far as is proper, make them lose sight of the distance which the laws of God and man have for ever placed between them and him. This condescension, however, if he be a man of dignity, will never lead him to join with them in any mean or unworthy action. He will even excuse in them many things which he would condemn in himself, and will give them his good wishes, after they have forfeited his esteem. Such a character is amiable and respectable; in short, what every man should labour to attain. From the weakness of human nature, however, it is too apt to degenerate into pride.

To a man of great intellectual powersand various erudition, the conversation of ordinary persons affords neither instruction nor amusement; and such conversation, when often repeated, must, from the nature of things, become tedious and irksome. But it requires great command of temper and of manners to prevent uneasiness, long felt, from sometimes betraying itself by external symptoms, such as peevish expressions, a forbidding look, or absence of mind; and these are the infallible indications of contempt for the company, the very worst ingredient in the passion of pride. If this contempt be often excited, it will be formed into a habit; and the proud man will be so much under its influence, as to insult his inferiors, and sometimes even his equals, without forming the resolution to insult either the one or the other. Such a character is hateful to every company, and is so far from indicating true dignity of mind in him to whom it belongs, that it is obviously associated with meanness, and indicates a consciousness of some radical defect. He who possesses real and conspicuous merit has no occasion to depress others for the purpose of raising himself; his superiority will be cheerfully acknowledged; but when a man of undoubted eminence, in one respect, is so swollen with pride as to make him wish to appear great in all respects, he has no other means of enforcing his ill-founded claim, than displaying his acknowledged superiority, with such insolence, as may drive to a distance from him every person by whom he is conscious that, in many instances, he might be more than rivalled. Whoever is proud of knowledge, would do well to consider how much knowledge he wants.

The same observations which we have made on pride of parts, will apply almost to every other species of pride, such as pride of birth, riches, or the like. The peace and order of society require difference of rank, accompanied with different degrees of authority; and he who inherits a title or office from his ancestors, may, without pride, be conscious of his superiority, provided he forget not that such superiority is conferred on families and individuals, not for their own sakes, but for the good of the community. The peer who keeps this circumstance in mind, may maintain his station, and repress the forward petulance of the plebeian, without giving offence to any thinking man; but if he dwell upon his rank with too much complacency, he will, in process of time, be apt to consider himself and his family as superior by nature to those upon whom no title has been conferred, and then his pride will become intolerable. If we could trace our descents, says Seneca, we would find all slaves to come from princes, and all princes from slaves. To be proud of knowledge, is to be blind in the light; to be proud of virtue, is to poison ourselves with the antidote; to be proud of authority, is to make our rise our downfall. The best way to humble a proud man is to neglect him.