the power of his rising splendour, it might begin to be feared, would
too powerfully eclipse that which was getting into the wane; and,
therefore, though praise could not be entirely denied, it was by no
means to be lavishly bestowed. This is ever the cold and cautious
sentiment of mean and mercenary minds: it sometimes creeps into the
bosoms of even the liberal and the brave. In the former, it begets a
fixed principle of action; from the latter, it is generally soon
expelled by a little dispassionate reflection. It is like the last
struggle of age, contending against a conviction of the superior vigour
of youth: which, by a good parent, is often unwillingly relinquished, in
even corporeal considerations; scarcely ever, willingly, in those of
intellect.
Without meaning to hazard any particular application of these ideas,
there is good reason to think that he began now to be an object of
considerable attraction. His power, though still abundantly too confined
for his ability, had been in some degree extended; and his services
were, in consequence, so numerous and great, that he well merited
recommendation to an enlarged sphere of action.
That he thought himself slighted, is beyond a possibility of doubt:
smarting with the total loss of sight in one eye, and almost exhausted
by fatigue, he felt conscious of deserving applause more ardent than
any which he had yet obtained. He was, probably, not pleased to find
that his journal of the siege of Calvi did not appear, as perhaps it
ought to have done, in the Gazette; nor even the letter in commendation
of his voluntary coadjutors, which he had sent to Lord Hood. His
lordship, however, it is but just to remark, could by no means be
considered as accountable for these omissions, as he certainly
transmitted both these documents to government.
What were his sensations, at this juncture, it would be difficult
exactly to ascertain; but his consolation is known, and it was worthy of
his exalted mind--"They have not done me justice," said he, writing to
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