'I would rather (said he)
have the rod to be the general terrour to all, to make them learn, than
tell a child, if you do thus, or thus, you will be more esteemed than
your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates
in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and
there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation and comparisons
of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief; you make
brothers and sisters hate each other.'
That superiority over his fellows, which he maintained with so much
dignity in his march through life, was not assumed from vanity
and ostentation, but was the natural and constant effect of those
extraordinary powers of mind, of which he could not but be conscious
by comparison; the intellectual difference, which in other cases of
comparison of characters, is often a matter of undecided contest, being
as clear in his case as the superiority of stature in some men above
others. Johnson did not strut or stand on tiptoe; He only did not stoop.
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