Note 53 — THE ROUND TABLE (continued 3)

A good-natured man will always have a smack of pedantry about him. A lawyer, who talks about law, certioraris, noli prosequis, and silk gowns, though he may be a blockhead, is by no means dangerous. It is a very bad sign (unless where it arises from singular modesty) when you cannot tell a man’s profession from his conversation. Such persons either feel no interest in what concerns them most, or do not express what they feel. ‘Not to admire any thing’ is a very unsafe rule. A London apprentice, who did not admire the Lord Mayor’s coach, would stand a good chance of being hanged. We know but one person absurd enough to have formed his whole character on the above maxim of Horace, and who affects a superiority over others from an uncommon degree of natural and artificial stupidity.