If thou wouldst have me credit thee, Alcippus, Thou shouldst not disesteem a Life, which ought To be preserv'd, to give a proof that what thou say'st Is true, and dispossess me of those fears I have, That 'tis my Life makes thine displeasing to thee.

'A foolish [contempt, disregard,] disesteem of Kings.

SIR, That short discourse which we lately had concerning the Clergy, continues so fresh in your mind, that, I perceive by your last, you are more than a little troubled to observe that Disesteem that lies upon several of those holy men.

And that no care ought to be taken, no choice made, no maintenance provided or considered; because (now and then in an Age) one, miraculously, beyond all hopes, proves learned and useful; is a practice, whereby never greater mischiefs and disesteem have been brought upon the Clergy.

I have now done, Sir, with the Grounds of that Disesteem that many of the Clergy lie under, both by the Ignorance of some, and the extreme Poverty of others.

I would not, therefore, be thought to disesteem or dissuade the study of NATURE.

This play has hitherto kept possession of the flags, a circumstance owing to the annual celebration of the lord mayor's inauguration: Though it seems to be growing into a just disesteem.

In some of his remarks he is candid, and judicious enough, in others he is trifling and ill natur'd, and I think it is pretty plain he was agitated by envy; for as the intent of that play was to promote the Whig interest, of which Mr. Dennis was a zealous abettor, he could not therefore disesteem it from party principles.

Disrespect N. disrespect, disesteem, disestimation^; disparagement &c (dispraise) 932, (detraction) 934. irreverence; slight, neglect, spretae injuria formae

Disapprobation N. disapprobation, disapproval; improbation^; disesteem, disvaluation^, displacency^; odium; dislike &c 867. dispraise, discommendation^; blame, censure, obloquy; detraction &c 934; disparagement, depreciation; denunciation; condemnation &c 971; ostracism; black list.

For, after all, this time of your sojourn here is short, and easy for those who are thus disposed; for what tyrant, or thief, or judgment-halls, are objects of dread to those who thus absolutely disesteem the body and its belongings?

Are not all her violent invectives against regular governments come into disesteem?

Mr. SPECTATOR, There is an Evil under the Sun which has not yet come within your Speculation; and is, the Censure, Disesteem, and Contempt which some young Fellows meet with from particular Persons, for the reasonable Methods they take to avoid them in general.

I was afraid of dropping something that might seem to bear hard either upon the Son's Abilities, or the Mother's Discretion; being sensible that in both these Cases, tho' supported with all the Powers of Reason, I should, instead of gaining her Ladyship over to my Opinion, only expose my self to her Disesteem: I therefore immediately determined to refer the whole Matter to the SPECTATOR.

As he happened to live in two reigns when the court paid little attention to poetry, he nursed in his mind a foolish disesteem of kings, and proclaims that 'he never sees courts.'

" "What else can you do?" asked Judith with a noticeable abatement of her previous disesteem.

Campbell's pecuniary circumstances are said to have been by no means easy at this time and a pleasant anecdote is recorded of him, in allusion to the hardships of an author's case, somewhat similar to his own: he was desired to give a toast at a festive moment when the character of Napoleon was at its utmost point of disesteem in England.

The disesteem in which the slavetraders were held was so great and general in the Southern community as to produce a social ostracism.

They did: he might speak of them with sharp impatience and seeming disesteem sometimes.

In a Court where Men speak Affection in the strongest Terms, and Dislike in the faintest, it was a comical Mixture of Incidents to see Disguises thrown aside in one Case and encreased on the other, according as Favour or Disgrace attended the respective Objects of Men's Approbation or Disesteem.

Mr. SPECTATOR, There is an Evil under the Sun which has not yet come within your Speculation; and is, the Censure, Disesteem, and Contempt which some young Fellows meet with from particular Persons, for the reasonable Methods they take to avoid them in general.

I was afraid of dropping something that might seem to bear hard either upon the Son's Abilities, or the Mother's Discretion; being sensible that in both these Cases, tho' supported with all the Powers of Reason, I should, instead of gaining her Ladyship over to my Opinion, only expose my self to her Disesteem: I therefore immediately determined to refer the whole Matter to the SPECTATOR.

It may perhaps appear odd, that I, who set up for a mighty Lover, at least, of Virtue, should take so much Pains to recommend what the soberer Part of Mankind look upon to be a Trifle; but under Favour of the soberer Part of Mankind, I think they have not enough considered this Matter, and for that Reason only disesteem it.

But if this sacred gift you disesteem, Then cruel plagues (which Heaven divert on them!) Shall fall on Priam's state: but if the horse Your walls ascend, assisted by your force, A league 'gainst Greece all Asia shall contract; Our sons then suff'ring what their sires would act.'

How strange it was that what she had been used to consider as the source of honour should be here held in what seemed to her disesteem!