to live free, fearless, and independant? There seems to be one way to continue in that virtuous resolution; and perhaps but one. Never enter the place from whence so few have been able to return; never come within the circle of ambition; nor ever bring yourself into comparison with those masters of the earth who have alrea|dy engrossed the attention of half mankind before you.
Of such mighty importance does it ap|pear to be, in the imaginations of men, to stand in that situation which sets them most in the view of general sympathy and atten|tion. And thus, place, that great object which divides the wives of aldermen, is the end of half the labours of human life; and is the cause of all the tumult and bustle, all the rapine and injustice, which avarice and ambition have introduced into this world. People of sense, it is said, in|deed despise place; that is, they despise sitting at the head of the table, and are in|different who it is that is pointed out to the company by that frivolous circum|stance, which the smallest advantage is ca|pable of overbalancing. But rank, distinc|tion, preeminence, no man despises, unless
