Original PDF Basic Bookkeeping An Office Simulation 8th Canadian Edition PDF
Original PDF Basic Bookkeeping An Office Simulation 8th Canadian Edition PDF
Original PDF Basic Bookkeeping An Office Simulation 8th Canadian Edition PDF
BASIC
BOOKKEEPING
EIGHTH EDITION
BASIC
BARKER
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BOOKKEEPING tion
An Off ic e Simu la
nelson.com
9 780176 721220
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Posting38
The Trial Balance 40
Practice Exercise 2 42
Practice Exercise 3 42
Practice Exercise 4 44
Practice Exercise 5 45
Locating Errors in a Trial Balance 46
Practice Exercise 6 47
Practice Exercise 7 48
Practice Exercise 8 48
Supplementary Exercises 48
Think About It! 49
Case Study: Introducing KBC Decorating Co. 50
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TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
Delivery Expense 73
Duty and Brokerage 73
Practice Exercise 1 75
Practice Exercise 2 76
Supplementary Exercises 77
Think About It! 77
Case Study: KBC Decorating Co. 77
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viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEL
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
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x TABLE OF CONTENTS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
GLOSSARY 293
INDEX 303
NEL
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PREFACE
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PREFACE xiii
Pedagogical Features
The objective of each chapter of this text is to cover the basic bookkeeping tech-
niques employed by small businesses in Canada. Explanations are purposely
geared to students who have little or no previous bookkeeping knowledge, and
the practice exercises and case study provide practical reinforcement of each con-
cept discussed.
Each chapter contains the following pedagogical features:
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
Objectives are provided at the beginning of each chapter to identify the major
areas and points covered in the chapter and to guide the learning process.
PRACTICE EXERCISES
Each chapter includes practice exercises that provide students with ample oppor-
tunity to review how well they have learned the material in the chapter. The
variety of exercises attempts to provide exposure to different types of businesses
and thus different account names, different provincial sales tax rates and calcula-
tion methods, as well as different degrees of complexity. Hints are added to some
exercises, wherever deemed beneficial, to simplify the calculation or recording of
certain transactions and to guide the student on the best way to address that par-
ticular issue.
SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES
Most chapters have additional exercises in Microsoft Excel format available for
download from nelson.com/student. The students will complete the exercises
according to the instructions that appear at the top of each spreadsheet exercise.
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xiv PREFACE
Supplements
INSTRUCTOR ANCILLARIES
The Nelson Education Teaching Advantage (NETA) program delivers
research-based instructor resources that promote student engagement and higher-
order thinking to enable the success of Canadian students and educators. Visit
Nelson Education’s Inspired Instruction website at nelson.com/inspired/ to find
out more about NETA.
The following instructor resources have been created for Basic Bookkeeping.
Access these ultimate tools for customizing lectures and presentations at nelson.com
/instructor.
●● Instructor’s Solutions Manual: Prepared by Brooke C.W. Barker, the solu-
tions manual contains the solutions for all of the chapter exercises and the
KBC Decorating Co. case study. Solutions have been independently checked
to ensure their accuracy and reliability.
●● NETA Test Bank: This resource was written by Jake Chazan of Seneca
College. It includes over 100 multiple-choice questions written according to
NETA guidelines for effective construction and development of higher-order
questions. Also included are true/false and short-answer questions.
®
The NETA Test Bank is available in a new, cloud-based platform.
Nelson Testing Powered by Cognero® is a secure online testing system
that allows instructors to author, edit, and manage test bank content from
anywhere Internet access is available. No special installations or downloads
are needed, and the desktop-inspired interface, with its drop-down menus
and familiar, intuitive tools, allows instructors to create and manage tests
with ease. Multiple test versions can be created in an instant, and content
can be imported or exported into other systems. Tests can be delivered from
a learning management system, the classroom, or wherever an instructor
chooses. Nelson Testing Powered by Cognero for Basic Bookkeeping: An Office
Simulation, Eighth Edition, can be accessed through nelson.com/instructor.
●● PowerPoint Presentation: Microsoft® PowerPoint® lecture slides for every
chapter have been prepared by Jake Chazan of Seneca College. There is an
average of 35 slides per chapter, many featuring key figures and tables from
Basic Bookkeeping: An Office Simulation, Eighth Edition. NETA principles of
clear design and engaging content have been incorporated throughout.
●● Image Library: This resource consists of digital copies of figures and short
tables used in the book. Instructors may use these jpegs to create their own
PowerPoint presentations.
STUDENT ANCILLARIES
Working Papers (978-0-17-682784-7)
This supplement contains working materials for the practice exercises and for the
KBC Decorating Co. (introduced in Chapter 3) case study. Special ledger accounts
and trial balances have been included expressly for work on the case study.
NEL
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PREFACE xv
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank all the reviewers of the previous edition of Basic Bookkeeping: An
Office Simulation for their opinions and suggestions on how to change and improve
the material. There were so many great ideas and suggestions; the difficult task
was putting them all together. I would like to acknowledge those who assisted
in reviewing this edition and earlier editions of this textbook: Dennis Adolph of
Saskatoon Business College, Nicole Ayotte of Canadore College, Daniel Basquill
of Eastern College, Dianne Berlenbach of Fleming College, Ruby (Rupinderbant)
K. Brar of SAIT, Julia Bueckert of Saskatoon Business College, Sylvia Culshaw
of Red Deer College, Denise Dodson of Nova Scotia Community College, Dana
Goedbloed of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Kim Hyatt of Robertson Col-
lege, Diamond Meuse of Eastern College, Kerri Simich of Niagara College, Gorian
Surlan of George Brown College, Vicki Sutherland of College of New Caledonia,
Marcia Whittaker of Saskatoon Business College, and Colin Wilkie of George
Brown College. Special thanks to Sharla Trudell of Fleming College, the technical
checker for this edition. As well, I wish to thank my accounting students for their
participation in “test driving” my new exercises. Last, but certainly not least, I
express a special thanks to all the staff at Nelson for their assistance in producing
this eighth edition.
NEL
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CHAPTER
OBJECTIVES
After completing this
chapter, you will be
able to:
●● define the three forms
of business organization
●● define the five
categories of accounts:
assets, liabilities, CHAPTER
1
owner’s equity,
revenues, and expenses
●● classify accounts
accepted accounting
principles
IMPORTANT TERMS
USED IN THIS
CHAPTER
Assets
Balance Sheet
Bookkeeping
Corporation
Expenses
GAAP (Generally
Accepted Accounting
Principles)
AN INTRODUCTION
Income Statement
Liabilities
Owner’s Equity
TO BOOKKEEPING
Partnership
Proprietorship
Revenue
NEL
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2 CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to Bookkeeping
Apr.
1 930 00
Apr. Hill Realty
1 64 Rent 650 00 280 00
Food Basket
4 debit Groceries 50 00 230 00
Provincial Power
6 65 Hydro Bill 95 00 135 00
Food Basket
11 debit Groceries 35 00 100 00
NEL
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CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to Bookkeeping 3
that affects their chequing account. Others are not. So, then, just how important
is this information? Perhaps more important than you think. A record of cash
flow (the movement of cash into and out of your account) helps you plan your
spending over the coming days, weeks, and months. If, for example, you have
only a small amount of money in your bank account, you likely would not be
planning any major spending, such as buying a shiny new sports car or booking
a tropical vacation.
Marvin Reese, for instance, has his eye on a new car, but he is not sure if
he can afford to buy it. His bank account shows a balance of only $1,335—not
nearly enough for his dream car! From the chequebook record in Figure 1.1, we
get some idea of Marvin’s spending habits. A simple chart helps us see at a glance
where his money comes from and where it goes each month.
On the one side, we see his deposits, which are usually his paycheques. On the
other, we see a list of what he spends his money on every month. Simple arith-
metic shows us that Marvin would be able to save $1,745 − $1,340 = $405 each
month. Keep in mind, however, that we have not yet considered other costs, such
as annual insurance costs on his car and his apartment, or regular or unforeseen
car repairs and maintenance. At this rate, Marvin could be saving for many years
before he has enough money to buy a new car.
As an alternative to saving the money he needs, Marvin might be able to get
a car loan from the bank. First, though, he will need to make a list of everything
he owns, including his existing car, any investments (such as savings bonds and
education funds), and all debts he currently owes, including any existing bank
loans, student loans, and amounts owing on credit cards. The bank will want to
know his present financial situation and will use this and other information to see
if Marvin is eligible for a bank loan.
NEL
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4 CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to Bookkeeping
This kind of detailed personal recordkeeping not only helps us make better
day-to-day decisions about spending but also helps us set long-term goals for
major purchases. By looking back over the financial activities of previous months
and years, we get a picture of spending habits. This is helpful in establishing a
budget so that money is spent wisely.
Also, Lance will prepare a list of what his business owns (called assets) and all
the debts he owes (called liabilities).
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CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to Bookkeeping 5
Lance Reed
Balance Sheet
June 30, 20—
ASSETS
Equipment:
Lawnmower 5 5 0 00
Tools 1 4 0 00
6 9 0 00
LIABILITIES
Loan (Father) 1 2 0 00
EQUITY
Capital, L. Reed 5 7 0 00
6 9 0 00
Balance Sheet. (See Figure 1.2.) The statement that shows his business earnings
and operating costs is an Income Statement. (See Figure 1.3.)
Assuming the loan to Lance has been granted by his bank and he has pur-
chased the additional items he needs, Figure 1.4 shows a new Balance Sheet for
his business today. The loan for $15,000 appears in the Liabilities section, and the
truck and additional equipment appear in the Assets section.
You can see that the information recorded by an individual and the informa-
tion recorded by a small business are very much the same. Company information,
however, is generally kept more formally and is displayed formally for the benefit
of others who must also interpret it. Examples of real-world financial statements
can be found in Appendix A of this textbook.
Lance Reed
Income Statement
For three months ending June 30, 20—
REVENUE
Yard Service 4 7 2 00
OPERATING COSTS
Gas/Oil 1 5 5 00
Garbage Bags 4 5 00
Miscellaneous 1 5 00 2 1 5 00
NET INCOME 2 5 7 00
NEL
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6 CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to Bookkeeping
Lance Reed
Balance Sheet
July 15, 20—
ASSETS
Cash 1 0 0 0 00
Truck 11 0 0 0 00
Equipment:
Lawnmower 2 5 5 0 00
Tools 1 1 4 0 00 3 6 9 0 00
15 6 9 0 00
LIABILITIES
Loan (Father) 1 2 0 00
Loan (Bank) 15 0 0 0 00 15 1 2 0 00
EQUITY
Capital, L. Reed 5 7 0 00
15 6 9 0 00
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CHAPTER 1 An Introduction to Bookkeeping 7
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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
predecessors can have nothing to say to this question, however they
may have anticipated us on others; future ages, in all probability, will
not trouble their heads about it; we are the panel. How hard, then,
not to avail ourselves of our immediate privilege to give sentence of
life or death—to seem in ignorance of what every one else is full of—
to be behind-hand with the polite, the knowing, and fashionable part
of mankind—to be at a loss and dumb-founded, when all around us
are in their glory, and figuring away, on no other ground than that of
having read a work that we have not! Books that are to be written
hereafter cannot be criticised by us; those that were written formerly
have been criticised long ago: but a new book is the property, the
prey of ephemeral criticism, which it darts triumphantly upon; there
is a raw thin air of ignorance and uncertainty about it, not filled up
by any recorded opinion; and curiosity, impertinence, and vanity
rush eagerly into the vacuum. A new book is the fair field for
petulance and coxcombry to gather laurels in—the butt set up for
roving opinion to aim at. Can we wonder, then, that the circulating
libraries are besieged by literary dowagers and their granddaughters,
when a new novel is announced? That Mail-Coach copies of the
Edinburgh Review are or were coveted? That the Manuscript of the
Waverley romances is sent abroad in time for the French, German, or
even Italian translation to appear on the same day as the original
work, so that the longing Continental public may not be kept waiting
an instant longer than their fellow-readers in the English metropolis,
which would be as tantalising and insupportable as a little girl being
kept without her new frock, when her sister’s is just come home and
is the talk and admiration of every one in the house? To be sure,
there is something in the taste of the times; a modern work is
expressly adapted to modern readers. It appeals to our direct
experience, and to well-known subjects; it is part and parcel of the
world around us, and is drawn from the same sources as our daily
thoughts. There is, therefore, so far, a natural or habitual sympathy
between us and the literature of the day, though this is a different
consideration from the mere circumstance of novelty. An author now
alive has a right to calculate upon the living public: he cannot count
upon the dead, nor look forward with much confidence to those that
are unborn. Neither, however, is it true that we are eager to read all
new books alike: we turn from them with a certain feeling of distaste
and distrust, unless they are recommended to us by some peculiar
feature or obvious distinction. Only young ladies from the boarding-
school, or milliners’ girls, read all the new novels that come out. It
must be spoken of or against; the writer’s name must be well known
or a great secret; it must be a topic of discourse and a mark for
criticism—that is, it must be likely to bring us into notice in some
way—or we take no notice of it. There is a mutual and tacit
understanding on this head. We can no more read all the new books
that appear, than we can read all the old ones that have disappeared
from time to time. A question may be started here, and pursued as
far as needful, whether, if an old and worm-eaten Manuscript were
discovered at the present moment, it would be sought after with the
same avidity as a new and hot-pressed poem, or other popular work?
Not generally, certainly, though by a few with perhaps greater zeal.
For it would not affect present interests, or amuse present fancies, or
touch on present manners, or fall in with the public egotism in any
way: it would be the work either of some obscure author—in which
case it would want the principle of excitement; or of some illustrious
name, whose style and manner would be already familiar to those
most versed in the subject, and his fame established—so that, as a
matter of comment and controversy, it would only go to account on
the old score: there would be no room for learned feuds and heart-
burnings. Was there not a Manuscript of Cicero’s talked of as having
been discovered about a year ago? But we have heard no more of it.
There have been several other cases, more or less in point, in our
time or near it. A Noble Lord (which may serve to shew at least the
interest taken in books not for being new) some time ago gave
2000l. for a copy of the first edition of the Decameron: but did he
read it? It has been a fashion also of late for noble and wealthy
persons to go to a considerable expense in ordering reprints of the
old Chronicles and black-letter works. Does not this rather prove that
the books did not circulate very rapidly or extensively, or such
extraordinary patronage and liberality would not have been
necessary? Mr. Thomas Taylor, at the instance, I believe, of the old
Duke of Norfolk, printed fifty copies in quarto of a translation of the
works of Plato and Aristotle. He did not choose that a larger
impression should be struck off, lest these authors should get into
the hands of the vulgar. There was no danger of a run in that way. I
tried to read some of the Dialogues in the translation of Plato, but, I
confess, could make nothing of it: ‘the logic was so different from
ours!’[34] A startling experiment was made on this sort of
retrospective curiosity, in the case of Ireland’s celebrated Shakspeare
forgery. The public there certainly manifested no backwardness nor
lukewarmness: the enthusiasm was equal to the folly. But then the
spirit exhibited on this occasion was partly critical and polemical,
and it is a problem whether an actual and undoubted play of
Shakspeare’s would have excited the same ferment; and, on the other
hand, Shakspeare is an essential modern. People read and go to see
his real plays, as well as his pretended ones. The fuss made about
Ossian is another test to refer to. It was its being the supposed
revival of an old work (known only by scattered fragments or
lingering tradition) which gave it its chief interest, though there was
also a good deal of mystery and quackery concerned along with the
din and stir of national jealousy and pretension. Who reads Ossian
now? It is one of the reproaches brought against Buonaparte that he
was fond of it when young. I cannot for myself see the objection.
There is no doubt an antiquarian spirit always at work, and opposed
to the spirit of novelty-hunting; but, though opposed, it is scarcely a
match for it in a general and popular point of view. It is not long ago
that I happened to be suggesting a new translation of Don Quixote to
an enterprising bookseller; and his answer was,—‘We want new Don
Quixotes.’ I believe I deprived the same active-minded person of a
night’s rest, by telling him there was the beginning of another novel
by Goldsmith in existence. This, if it could be procured, would satisfy
both tastes for the new and the old at once. I fear it is but a fragment,
and that we must wait till a new Goldsmith appears. We may observe
of late a strong craving after Memoirs and Lives of the Dead. But
these, it may be remarked, savour so much of the real and familiar,
that the persons described differ from us only in being dead, which is
a reflection to our advantage: or, if remote and romantic in their
interest and adventures, they require to be bolstered up in some
measure by the embellishments of modern style and criticism. The
accounts of Petrarch and Laura, of Abelard and Eloise, have a
lusciousness and warmth in the subject which contrast quaintly and
pointedly with the coldness of the grave; and, after all, we prefer
Pope’s Eloise and Abelard with the modern dress and flourishes, to
the sublime and affecting simplicity of the original Letters.
In some very just and agreeable reflections on the story of Abelard
and Eloise, in a late number of a contemporary publication, there is a
quotation of some lines from Lucan, which Eloise is said to have
repeated in broken accents as she was advancing to the altar to
receive the veil:
‘O maxime conjux!
O thalamis indigne meis! Hoc juris habebat
In tantum fortuna caput? Cur impia nupsi,
Si miserum factura fui? Nunc accipe pœnas,
Sed quas sponte luam.’ Pharsalia, lib. 8.
However we may despise such triflers, yet we regret them more than
those well-meaning friends on whom a dull melancholy vapour
hangs, that drags them and every one about them to the ground.
Again, there are those who might be very agreeable people, if they
had but spirit to be so; but there is a narrow, unaspiring, under-bred
tone in all they say or do. They have great sense and information—
abound in a knowledge of character—have a fund of anecdote—are
unexceptionable in manners and appearance—and yet we cannot
make up our minds to like them: we are not glad to see them, nor
sorry when they go away. Our familiarity with them, however great,
wants the principle of cement, which is a certain appearance of frank
cordiality and social enjoyment. They have no pleasure in the
subjects of their own thoughts, and therefore can communicate none
to others. There is a dry, husky, grating manner—a pettiness of detail
—a tenaciousness of particulars, however trifling or unpleasant—a
disposition to cavil—an aversion to enlarged and liberal views of
things—in short, a hard, painful, unbending matter-of-factness, from
which the spirit and effect are banished, and the letter only is
attended to, which makes it impossible to sympathise with their
discourse. To make conversation interesting or agreeable, there is
required either the habitual tone of good company, which gives a
favourable colouring to every thing—or the warmth and enthusiasm
of genius, which, though it may occasionally offend or be thrown off
its guard, makes amends by its rapturous flights, and flings a
glancing light upon all things. The literal and dogged style of
conversation resembles that of a French picture, or its mechanical
fidelity is like evidence given in a court of justice, or a police report.
From the literal to the plain-spoken, the transition is easy. The
most efficient weapon of offence is truth. Those who deal in dry and
repulsive matters-of-fact, tire out their friends; those who blurt out
hard and home truths, make themselves mortal enemies wherever
they come. There are your blunt, honest creatures, who omit no
opportunity of letting you know their minds, and are sure to tell you
all the ill, and conceal all the good they hear of you. They would not
flatter you for the world, and to caution you against the malice of
others, they think the province of a friend. This is not candour, but
impudence; and yet they think it odd you are not charmed with their
unreserved communicativeness of disposition. Gossips and tale-
bearers, on the contrary, who supply the tittle-tattle of the
neighbourhood, flatter you to your face, and laugh at you behind
your back, are welcome and agreeable guests in all companies.
Though you know it will be your turn next, yet for the sake of the
immediate gratification, you are contented to pay your share of the
public tax upon character, and are better pleased with the falsehoods
that never reach your ears, than with the truths that others (less
complaisant and more sincere) utter to your face—so short-sighted
and willing to be imposed upon is our self-love! There is a man, who
has the air of not being convinced without an argument: you avoid
him as if he were a lion in your path. There is another, who asks you
fifty questions as to the commonest things you advance: you would
sooner pardon a fellow who held a pistol to your breast and
demanded your money. No one regards a turnpike-keeper, or a
custom-house officer, with a friendly eye: he who stops you in an
excursion of fancy, or ransacks the articles of your belief obstinately
and churlishly, to distinguish the spurious from the genuine, is still
more your foe. These inquisitors and cross-examiners upon system
make ten enemies for every controversy in which they engage. The
world dread nothing so much as being convinced of their errors. In
doing them this piece of service, you make war equally on their
prejudices, their interests, their pride, and indolence. You not only
set up for a superiority of understanding over them, which they hate,
but you deprive them of their ordinary grounds of action, their topics
of discourse, of their confidence in themselves, and those to whom
they have been accustomed to look up for instruction and advice. It is
making children of them. You unhinge all their established opinions
and trains of thought; and after leaving them in this listless, vacant,
unsettled state—dissatisfied with their own notions and shocked at
yours—you expect them to court and be delighted with your
company, because, forsooth, you have only expressed your sincere
and conscientious convictions. Mankind are not deceived by
professions, unless they choose. They think that this pill of true
doctrine, however it may be gilded over, is full of gall and bitterness
to them; and, again, it is a maxim of which the vulgar are firmly
persuaded, that plain-speaking (as it is called) is, nine parts in ten,
spleen and self-opinion; and the other part, perhaps, honesty. Those
who will not abate an inch in argument, and are always seeking to
recover the wind of you, are, in the eye of the world, disagreeable,
unconscionable people, who ought to be sent to Coventry, or left to
wrangle by themselves. No persons, however, are more averse to
contradiction than these same dogmatists. What shews our
susceptibility on this point is, there is no flattery so adroit or
effectual as that of implicit assent. Any one, however mean his
capacity or ill-qualified to judge, who gives way to all our sentiments,
and never seems to think but as we do, is indeed an alter idem—
another self; and we admit him without scruple into our entire
confidence, ‘yea, into our heart of hearts.’
It is the same in books. Those which, under the disguise of plain-
speaking, vent paradoxes, and set their faces against the common
sense of mankind, are neither ‘the volumes
——‘That enrich the shops,
That pass with approbation through the land;’
nor, I fear, can it be added—
‘That bring their authors an immortal fame.’
They excite a clamour and opposition at first, and are in general soon
consigned to oblivion. Even if the opinions are in the end adopted,
the authors gain little by it, and their names remain in their original
obloquy; for the public will own no obligations to such ungracious
benefactors. In like manner, there are many books written in a very
delightful vein, though with little in them, and that are accordingly
popular. Their principle is to please, and not to offend; and they
succeed in both objects. We are contented with the deference shown
to our feelings for the time, and grant a truce both to wit and
wisdom. The ‘courteous reader’ and the good-natured author are well
matched in this instance, and find their account in mutual
tenderness and forbearance to each other’s infirmities. I am not sure
that Walton’s Angler is not a book of this last description—
‘That dallies with the innocence of thought,
Like the old age.’
Hobbes and Mandeville are in the opposite extreme, and have met
with a correspondent fate. The Tatler and the Spectator are in the
golden mean, carry instruction as far as it can go without shocking,
and give the most exquisite pleasure without one particle of pain.
‘Desire to please, and you will infallibly please,’ is a maxim equally
applicable to the study or the drawing-room. Thus also we see actors
of very small pretensions, and who have scarce any other merit than
that of being on good terms with themselves, and in high good
humour with their parts (though they hardly understand a word of
them), who are universal favourites with the audience. Others, who
are masters of their art, and in whom no slip or flaw can be detected,
you have no pleasure in seeing, from something dry, repulsive, and
unconciliating in their manner; and you almost hate the very
mention of their names, as an unavailing appeal to your candid
decision in their favour, and as taxing you with injustice for refusing
it.
We may observe persons who seem to take a peculiar delight in the
disagreeable. They catch all sorts of uncouth tones and gestures, the
manners and dialect of clowns and hoydens, and aim at vulgarity as
desperately as others ape gentility. [This is what is often understood
by a love of low life.] They say the most unwarrantable things,
without meaning or feeling what they say. What startles or shocks
other people, is to them a sport—an amusing excitement—a fillip to
their constitutions; and from the bluntness of their perceptions, and
a certain wilfulness of spirit, not being able to enter into the refined
and agreeable, they make a merit of despising every thing of the
kind. Masculine women, for example, are those who, not being
distinguished by the charms and delicacy of the sex, affect a
superiority over it by throwing aside all decorum. We also find
another class, who continually do and say what they ought not, and
what they do not intend, and who are governed almost entirely by an
instinct of absurdity. Owing to a perversity of imagination or
irritability of nerve, the idea that a thing is improper acts as a
provocation to it: the fear of committing a blunder is so strong, that
in their agitation they bolt out whatever is uppermost in their minds,
before they are aware of the consequence. The dread of something
wrong haunts and rivets their attention to it; and an uneasy, morbid
apprehensiveness of temper takes away their self-possession, and
hurries them into the very mistakes they are most anxious to avoid.
If we look about us, and ask who are the agreeable and
disagreeable people in the world, we shall see that it does not depend
on their virtues or vices—their understanding or stupidity—but as
much on the degree of pleasure or pain they seem to feel in ordinary
social intercourse. What signify all the good qualities any one
possesses, if he is none the better for them himself? If the cause is so
delightful, the effect ought to be so too. We enjoy a friend’s society
only in proportion as he is satisfied with ours. Even wit, however it
may startle, is only agreeable as it is sheathed in good-humour.
There are a kind of intellectual stammerers, who are delivered of
their good things with pain and effort; and consequently what costs
them such evident uneasiness does not impart unmixed delight to
the bystanders. There are those, on the contrary, whose sallies cost
them nothing—who abound in a flow of pleasantry and good-
humour; and who float down the stream with them carelessly and
triumphantly,—
‘Wit at the helm, and Pleasure at the prow.’
Perhaps it may be said of English wit in general, that it too much
resembles pointed lead: after all, there is something heavy and dull
in it! The race of small wits are not the least agreeable people in the
world. They have their little joke to themselves, enjoy it, and do not
set up any preposterous pretensions to thwart the current of our self-
love. Toad-eating is accounted a thriving profession; and a butt,
according to the Spectator, is a highly useful member of society—as
one who takes whatever is said of him in good part, and as necessary
to conduct off the spleen and superfluous petulance of the company.
Opposed to these are the swaggering bullies—the licensed wits—the
free-thinkers—the loud talkers, who, in the jockey phrase, have lost
their mouths, and cannot be reined in by any regard to decency or
common sense. The more obnoxious the subject, the more are they
charmed with it, converting their want of feeling into a proof of
superiority to vulgar prejudice and squeamish affectation. But there
is an unseemly exposure of the mind, as well as of the body. There
are some objects that shock the sense, and cannot with propriety be
mentioned: there are naked truths that offend the mind, and ought
to be kept out of sight as much as possible. For human nature cannot
bear to be too hardly pressed upon. One of these cynical truisms,
when brought forward to the world, may be forgiven as a slip of the
pen: a succession of them, denoting a deliberate purpose and malice
prepense, must ruin any writer. Lord Byron had got into an irregular
course of these a little before his death—seemed desirous, in
imitation of Mr. Shelley, to run the gauntlet of public obloquy—and,
at the same time, wishing to screen himself from the censure he
defied, dedicated his Cain to Sir Walter Scott—a pretty godfather to
such a bantling!
Some persons are of so teazing and fidgetty a turn of mind, that
they do not give you a moment’s rest. Every thing goes wrong with
them. They complain of a headache or the weather. They take up a
book, and lay it down again—venture an opinion, and retract it
before they have half done—offer to serve you, and prevent some one
else from doing it. If you dine with them at a tavern, in order to be
more at your ease, the fish is too little done—the sauce is not the
right one; they ask for a sort of wine which they think is not to be
had, or if it is, after some trouble, procured, do not touch it; they give
the waiter fifty contradictory orders, and are restless and sit on
thorns the whole of dinner-time. All this is owing to a want of robust
health, and of a strong spirit of enjoyment; it is a fastidious habit of
mind, produced by a valetudinary habit of body: they are out of sorts
with every thing, and of course their ill-humour and captiousness
communicates itself to you, who are as little delighted with them as
they are with other things. Another sort of people, equally
objectionable with this helpless class, who are disconcerted by a
shower of rain or stopped by an insect’s wing, are those who, in the
opposite spirit, will have every thing their own way, and carry all
before them—who cannot brook the slightest shadow of opposition—
who are always in the heat of an argument—who knit their brows and
clench their teeth in some speculative discussion, as if they were
engaged in a personal quarrel—and who, though successful over
almost every competitor, seem still to resent the very offer of
resistance to their supposed authority, and are as angry as if they had
sustained some premeditated injury. There is an impatience of
temper and an intolerance of opinion in this that conciliates neither
our affection nor esteem. To such persons nothing appears of any
moment but the indulgence of a domineering intellectual superiority
to the disregard and discomfiture of their own and every body else’s
comfort. Mounted on an abstract proposition, they trample on every
courtesy and decency of behaviour; and though, perhaps, they do not
intend the gross personalities they are guilty of, yet they cannot be
acquitted of a want of due consideration for others, and of an
intolerable egotism in the support of truth and justice. You may hear
one of these Quixotic declaimers pleading the cause of humanity in a
voice of thunder, or expatiating on the beauty of a Guido with
features distorted with rage and scorn. This is not a very amiable or
edifying spectacle.
There are persons who cannot make friends. Who are they? Those
who cannot be friends. It is not the want of understanding or good-
nature, of entertaining or useful qualities, that you complain of: on
the contrary, they have probably many points of attraction; but they
have one that neutralises all these—they care nothing about you, and
are neither the better nor worse for what you think of them. They
manifest no joy at your approach; and when you leave them, it is
with a feeling that they can do just as well without you. This is not
sullenness, nor indifference, nor absence of mind; but they are intent
solely on their own thoughts, and you are merely one of the subjects
they exercise them upon. They live in society as in a solitude; and,