All I mean to say is, that
it is better to be blind to the results of partisanship, and quick
to see goodwill. One has more happiness in one's self in
endeavouring to follow the things that make for peace. You can
hardly imagine how often I have been heated in private when
opposed, as I have thought unjustly and superciliously, and yet I
have striven, and succeeded, I hope, in keeping down replies of
the like kind. And I know I have never lost by it." (11)
While the painter Barry was at Rome, he involved himself, as was
his wont, in furious quarrels with the artists and dilettanti,
about picture-painting and picture-dealing, upon which his friend
and countryman, Edmund Burke--always the generous friend of
struggling merit--wrote to him kindly and sensibly: "Believe me,
dear Barry, that the arms with which the ill-dispositions of the
world are to be combated, and the qualities by which it is to be
reconciled to us, and we reconciled to it, are moderation,
gentleness, a little indulgence to others, and a great deal of
distrust of ourselves; which are not qualities of a mean spirit,
as some may possibly think them, but virtues of a great and noble
kind, and such as dignify our nature as much as they contribute to
our repose and fortune; for nothing can be so unworthy of a well-
composed soul as to pass away life in bickerings and litigations--
in snarling and scuffling with every one about us.
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