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"All these," answered Belfield, "are so merely matters of ceremony, that the concession can neither cost pain to the proud, nor give pleasure to the vain The bow is to the coat, the attention is to the rank, and the fear of offending ought to extend to all es not our sincerity, since it is as much a matter of course as the dress that ear, and has as little reason to flatter a man as the shadohich follows hi this panto corn he has not sown"

"Where, then, do you draw the line? and what is the boundary beyond which your independence y, "to be independent, who treats the Great as the Little, and the Little as the Great, who neither exults in riches nor blushes in poverty, es nohe has not earned"

"You will not, indeed, then, have a very numerous acquaintance, if this is the description of those hoine you can live by such notions? why the Carthusian in his monastery, who is at least removed from temptation, is notin the world, ould prescribe himself such rules"

"Not merely have I prescribed," returned Belfield, "I have already put the any pennance, I never before found happiness I have now adopted, though poor, the very plan of life I should have elected if rich; my pleasure, therefore, is become my business, and my businessht- errant to the Booksellers?"

"'Tis a Knight-errantry," answered Belfield, laughing, "which, however ludicrous it may seem to you, requires iants may, indeed, be only windmills, but they must be attacked with as much spirit, and conquered with as much bravery, as any fort or any town, in tie, I must confess, may be of less national utility, the assailants of the quill have their honour as much at heart as the assailants of the sword"

"I suppose then," said Monckton, archly, "if a yric, some newspaper scandal, or a sonnet for a lady--"

"No, no," interrupted Belfield eagerly, "if you i scribbler for the purposes of defamation or of flattery, you as little know my situation as my character My subjects shall be eneral I would as much disdain to be personal with an anonyer I had kept concealed"