They had
also a peculiarity that I have often remarked in persons of the same
propensity; most of their gossiping arose from a desire to make
apparent their own intimacy with the private affairs of people of
mark--overlooking the circumstance that, in thus making the concerns
of others the subjects of their own comments, they were impliedly
admitting a consciousness of their own inferiority; men seldom
condescending thus to busy themselves with the affairs of any but
those of whom they feel it to be a sort of distinction to converse. I
am much afraid good-breeding has more to do with the suppression of
this vice, than good principles, as the world goes. I have remarked
that persons of a high degree of self-respect, and a good tone of
manners, are quite free from this defect of character; while I regret
to be compelled to say that I have been acquainted with divers very
saintly _professors_, including one or two parsons, who have
represented the very _beau ideal_ of scandal.
My passengers gave me a taste of their quality, as I have said, before
we had got a mile below Governor's Island. The ladies were named
Sarah and Jane; and, between them and Wallace Mortimer, what an
insight did I obtain into the private affairs of sundry personages of
Salem, in Massachusetts, together with certain glimpses in at Boston
folk; all, however, referring to qualities and facts that might be
classed among the real or supposed.
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