1819 July 4

Defence | | against Edinb gh Review

II Indirect attacks

4 Appropriate aptitude

2

Now in the first place it was clear that these outward and visible signs /manifestations/ of the favour[?] of Fortune were /are/ not any one of them themselves either appropriate probity, appropriate intellectual aptitude, or appropriate talent. In the next place neither did it or does it seem to me that by the possession of these spurious titles to public confidence a man is rendered the more likely to be possessed of those exclusively genuine ones: on the contrary it seemed to me that in proportion as the quantity of these spurious pledges possessed by a man encreased, the quantity of the genuine ones which he possessed was more likely to be diminished

Thus therefore of these distinctions in so far as they obtained acceptance the tendency was to cut the ground from under the feet of the learned Reviewers Clients[?]. Had this tendency been to a certain degree favourable to these same pretensions these explanations and distinctions might have been found demonstrative /to be the result/ of practical wisdom: it being such as has been seen, the whole assemblage of them /language by which they were found expressed/, theoretical, speculative wild visionary and so forth

Cartwright and J.B.

The way in which the Reviewer has upon this occasion brought in[?] a contract with my old friend the father of parliamentary reform puts me /brings to/ my mind one of the scenes /a little scene/ in early life. A father wishing to see which of two boys weaker than /not so strong as/ himself was in the school boys phrase the best man, gave one of them a pretty smart push against the other: but instead of seeing what he wished the rogue felt what he did not wish, the intended objects of his […?] joining together and bestowing upon him the compliment he had expected /looked/ to see them pay to one another. ☞ Now quote the passage