Jeremy Bentham, speaking of a well-known public character,
said: "His creed of politics results less from love of the many
than from hatred of the few; it is too much under the influence of
selfish and dissocial affection." To how many men in our own day
might not the same description apply?
Men of sterling character have the courage to speak the truth,
even when it is unpopular. It was said of Colonel Hutchinson by
his wife, that he never sought after popular applause, or prided
himself on it: "He more delighted to do well than to be praised,
and never set vulgar commendations at such a rate as to act
contrary to his own conscience or reason for the obtaining them;
nor would he forbear a good action which he was bound to, though
all the world disliked it; for he ever looked on things as they
were in themselves, not through the dim spectacles of vulgar
estimation." (8)
"Popularity, in the lowest and most common sense," said Sir John
Pakington, on a recent occasion, (9) "is not worth the having. Do
your duty to the best of your power, win the approbation of your
own conscience, and popularity, in its best and highest sense, is
sure to follow."
When Richard Lovell Edgeworth, towards the close of his life,
became very popular in his neighbourhood, he said one day to his
daughter: "Maria, I am growing dreadfully popular; I shall be good
for nothing soon; a man cannot be good for anything who is very
popular.
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