Upon Self-Love

Self-love, kept within due bounds, is a natural and useful sentiment. It is, in truth, social love too, as Mr. Pope has very justly observed: it is the spring of many good actions, and of no ridiculous ones.

But self-flattery is only the ape, or caricature of self-love, and resembles it no more than to heighten the ridicule. Like other flattery, it is the most profusely bestowed and greedily swallowed, where it is the least deserved.

----Lord Chesterfield From Joozone

请参考作文地带提供翻译：

论自爱

自爱若保持在恰当的范围之内，是一种自然的、有益的情感。事实上，自爱也是一种社会的爱，正如波普先生公正所说的，自爱是诸多良好行为的源泉，而不是荒唐可笑之行为的巢穴。但自我吹嘘只不过是自爱的模仿或漫画化，这种相似反而更加突出其荒唐可笑之处。跟其他的阿谀一样，在最名不符实的时候，它被最慷慨地施与和最贪婪地接受。