He was much pleased with an unsuspicious testimony furnished by
Dampier (vol. ii. part 2, page 89): "I have particularly observed,"
writes this famous old navigator, "there and in other places, that
such as had been well-bred were generally most careful to improve
their time, and would be very industrious and frugal where there was
any probability of considerable gain; but on the contrary, such as
had been bred up in ignorance and hard labour, when they came to have
plenty would extravagantly squander away their time and money in
drinking and making a bluster." Indeed it is a melancholy proof how
strangely power warps the minds of ordinary men, that there can be a
doubt on this subject among persons who have been themselves
educated. It tempts a suspicion that, unknown to themselves, they
find a comfort in the thought, that their inferiors are something
less than men; or that they have an uneasy half-consciousness that,
if this were not the case, they would themselves have no claim to be
their superiors.
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