in vice and trifles.

"I am far from making misfortune a matter of reproach. I know there are
accidental occurences not to be foreseen or avoided by human prudence,
by which a character may be injured, wealth dissipated, or a
constitution impaired: but I think I may reasonably despise the
understanding of one who conducts himself in such a manner as naturally
produces such lamentable consequences, and continues in the same
destructive paths to the end of a long life, ostentatiously boasting of
morals and philosophy in print, and with equal ostentation bragging of
the scenes of low debauchery in public conversation, though deplorably
weak both in mind and body, and his virtue and his vigour in a state of
non-existence. His confederacy with Swift and Pope puts me in mind of
that of Bessus and his sword-men, in the _King and no King_,[18] who
endeavour to support themselves by giving certificates of each other's
merit. Pope has triumphantly declared that they may do and say whatever
silly things they please, they will still be the greatest geniuses
nature ever exhibited. I am delighted with the comparison given of their
benevolence, which is indeed most aptly figured by a circle in the
water, which widens till it comes to nothing at all; but I am provoked
at Lord B.'s misrepresentation of my favourite Atticus, who seems to
have been the only Roman that, from good sense, had a true notion of the
times in which he lived, in which the republic was inevitably perishing,
and the two factions, who pretended to support it, equally endeavouring
to gratify their ambition in its ruin. A wise man, in that case, would
certainly declare for neither, and try to save himself and family from
the general wreck, which could not be done but by a superiority of
understanding acknowledged on both sides. I see no glory in losing life
or fortune by being the dupe of either, and very much applaud that
conduct which could preserve an universal esteem amidst the fury of