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1,341. Class; Debt;
Embarrassment
"It sometimes happens in the combinations of life, that important
services are performed by inferiors; but though their zeal and
activity may be paid by pecuniary rewards, they seldom excite
that flow of gratitude, or obtain that accumulation of
recompense, with which all think it their duty to acknowledge the
favour of those who descent to their assistance from a higher
elevation. To be obliged is to be in some respect inferior to
another; and few willingly indulge the memory of an action which
raises one whom they have always been accustomed to think below
them, but satisfy with faint praise and penurious payment, and
then drive it form their own minds, and endeavour to conceal it
from the knowledge of others."
Johnson: Rambler #166 (October 19, 1751)
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