The world no sooner discovered that the most de
lightful of all things was the pleasure of talking about
one s self, even more delightful than talking about
one s neighbour, than straightway the world, with
the wits to back it, pronounced against the use of
this luxury.
Who knows but it is a sort of desire for revenge against mankind for forbidding us to talk as much as we like about ourselves, that makes us so turn upon and talk about our neighbours.
Be that as it may, I know very well that if all men were permitted to talk about themselves as much as they liked, they would not talk so much about their neighbours. They would not have time. Even ages ago, whenever any man dared come out and talk freely, naturally and fully as he desired about himself, the wits nailed him to the wall with their shafts of irony, until the last man was driven from the green and leafy Eden of egotism, and no one has yet had courage to attempt to retake it.
Now I like this great big letter u I," standing out boldly alone like a soldier at his post. It is a sort of granite pillar, it seems to me, set up at each mile, even every quarter if you like, to face you, to be familiar, to talk to you as you proceed, without an interpreter or the intervention of a third party.
Modest Caesar ! The man who writes of a third person when he means the first is a falsehood. The man who says u we" when he means U I," is a coward, and afraid to go alone. He winces before the wits,
