There is a medium in all
things; only blockheads go to extremes. We need not be all rock or all
sand, all iron or all wax. We should neither fawn upon every body like
silly lap-dogs, nor fly at all persons like surly mastiffs. Blacks and
whites go together to make up a world, and hence, on the point of
temper, we have all sorts of people to deal with. Some are as easy as an
old shoe, but they are hardly ever worth more than the other one of the
pair; and others take fire as fast as tinder at the smallest offense,
and are as dangerous as gunpowder. To have a fellow going about the farm
as cross with every body as a bear with a sore head, with a temper as
sour as verjuice and as sharp as a razor, looking as surly as a
butcher's dog, is a great nuisance; and yet there may be some good
points about the man, so that he may be a man for all that; but poor,
soft Tommy, as green as grass and as ready to bend as a willow, is
nobody's money and every body's scorn. A man must have a backbone, or
how is he to hold his head up? But that backbone must bend, or he will
knock his brow against the beam.
There is a time to do as others wish, and a time to refuse. We may make
ourselves asses, and then every body will ride us; but, if we would be
respected, we must be our own masters, and not let others saddle us as
they think fit. If we try to please every body, we shall be like a toad
under a harrow, and never have peace; and, if we play lackey to all our
neighbors, whether good or bad, we shall be thanked by no one, for we
shall soon do as much harm as good.
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