A POOR RELATION- is the most irrelevant thing in nature,- a piece of impertinent correspondency,- an odious approximation,- a haunting conscience,- a preposterous shadow, lengthening in the noon-tide of our prosperity,- an unwelcome remembrancer,- a perpetually recurring mortification,- a drain on your purse, a more intolerable dun upon your pride,- a drawback upon success,- a rebuke to your rising,- a stain in your blood,- a blot on your 'scutcheon,- a rent in your garment,- a death's-head at your banquet,- Agathocles' pot,- a Mordecai in your gate, a Lazarus at your door,- a lion in your path,- a frog in your chamber,- a fly in your ointment,- a mote in your eye,- a triumph to your enemy, an apology to your friends,- the one thing not needful,- the hail in harvest,- the ounce of sour in a pound of sweet.
Charles Lamb (Elia)
