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show of virtue, and abhorrence of vice, are carefully avoided by this set of shamefaced people, as what would disparage their gavity of temper, and infallibly bring them to dishonour. This is such a poorness of spirit, such a despicable cowardice, such a degenerate abject state of mind, as one would think human nature incapable of, did we not meet with frequent instances of it in ordinary conversation. There is another kind of vicious Modesty which makes a man ashamed of his person, his birth, his profession, his poverty, or the like misfortunes, which it was not in his choice to prevent, and is not in his power to rectify. If a man appears ridiculous by any of the aforementioned circumstances, he becomes much more so by being out of countenance for them. They should rather give him occasion to exert a noble spirit, and to palliate those imperfections which are not in his power, by those perfections which are; or to use a very witty allusion of an eminent Author, he should imitate Ceasar, who because his head was bald, covered that defect with Laurels. [[note]] No: 237. [[/note]] It is very reasonable to believe, that part of the pleasure which happy minds shall enjoy in a future State, will arise from an enlarged contemplation
