Hope is a flatterer, but the most upright of all parasites for she frequents the poor man’s hut, as well as the palace of his superior.

Shenstone personifies Hope as a “flatterer” and a “parasite,” suggesting it lives off human need by feeding us pleasing expectations. Yet it is “the most upright” of parasites because it is not selective or corrupt in the usual social sense: it visits everyone, from the poor in their huts to the wealthy in palaces. The line captures an Enlightenment-era moral skepticism about self-deception while still acknowledging hope’s democratic, even consoling, universality. Hope may mislead, but it also sustains; its moral ambiguity lies in the tension between comforting illusion and necessary endurance.