Year: 1860

LILLE CU hSE Of' FhOSfEhlTY I.


1t is one of the saddest features in hu-
man nature, that mankind generally are
more capable of bearing adversely than
prosperity. When smitten by misfortune,
man displays patient fortiude that makes
him an object of admiration; but if his
course be uninterruptedly prosperous, he
becomes elated and pulled up with haugh-
ty pride. 1t is strange, too, that those who
have once endured the frowus of fortune
are most easily spoiled by her favors. 1t
might be supposed that their experience
would teach them meekness and humility
but it is rarely SO. One who is suddenly
elevated from low estate drops his pa,
tience, and often too many of his other
virtues, as badges of his degradation, and
puts on characteristics which he deems
more be6tting his new position. They are
like plants which, in the frigid zone, have
so co6formed themselves to the climate
that they are able to pass uninjured through
all its rigors; but transferred to the tro.
pics, they loose all their hardness, and be-
come more delicate than the creeping annu.
ais that never knew chilling breath.


We every day see illustrations of this
strange feature in our constitution. See,
for instance, that man who bears himself
with such scornful pride, as if he thought
the world could not boast his peer. When
he moves amid crowd of his fellow-men,
he holds his head as one might do, who
walked among toads and all kinds of dis.
gusting reptiles. You read in his counte,
nance plainly enough that he deems him.
self formed of purer clay than these com.
mon mortals. He treads as if the ground
we're too vile for his touch; he speaks and
acts as if there was fascinating eloquence
in all he says; peculiar majesty in all he
does That man was once. poor, and then
none could surpass him in complaisance and
afability. He had smile and pleasant
word for everybody, and with fawning syc-
ophancy, licked the boots of some whom
he now deigns to patronize. But it was
his luck to marry rich wife, and her gold
has so wrought upon his constitution that
he finds it very unwholesome to bow polite
ly to all whom he meets on the streets, OF
to stoop down and then to press the rough
hand of an honest laborer. When he be-
comes a candidate for Congress-for be
thinks his wife's money can carry him
there-he will perhaps do these things
but now he is cold and stiff, moving along
as mechanically as puppet skeleton strung
upon wires.


There is lady arrayed in splendid at
tire of silk and jewelry, upon whose face
pride and haughtiness are as plainly written
as if they were printed. She is now rich
and fashionable, and the 'best circle is
proud to claim her as member. But it
was not always so. She was once an hum
BILE dress-maker, and then all admired the
patient and honest industry with which she
toiled for her bread. Her conduct at home
and abroad was, so far as an observer could
see, marked by most commendable pro-
priety. But now all is changed. She
married a rich man, and threw away the
little instrument with which she had kept
want and suffering from her door. She
now associates with those, the hens Of
whose garments she was not previously
thought worthy to touch. But where are
those, who, in her days Of poverty, gave
her work and encouragement? She knows
them not. They are not of her 'set,' and
she passes them with cold stare that sends
the hot blood to the cheek, but forbids all
recognition. Prosperity has changed her
heart, as we'll as turned her head.


We might go on endlessly, enumerating
the transformations for the worse which
prosperity produces; but let these suffice
In all such instances it is curse, and not
a blessing. The qualification which it af-
fords the individual is more than balanced
by the changes which it makes in the NOR
al character. Better far it is to continue
poor and honest, than, by some sudden turn
Of fortune, to be lifted above poverty and
honesty. Neither unexpected adversely nor