" In this final stage they are men who, beyond the
routine of life, should not be trusted, being "fit for treasons,
stratagems, and spoils." On the other hand, there are those whose lot it
has been from earliest childhood to see the fair side of humanity, who
have been surrounded with clear and candid countenances, in the changes
of which might be traced the working of passions strong and simple, the
impress of a firm and tender nature, wearing when it looked abroad the
glow of sympathy, and when it looked within the bloom of modesty. They
have seen, and not once or twice, a man forget himself; they have
witnessed devotion, unselfish sorrow, unaffected delicacy, spontaneous
charity, ingenuous self-reproach; and it may be that on seeing a human
being surrender for another's good not something but his uttermost all,
they have dimly suspected in human nature a glory connecting it with the
divine. In these the passion of humanity is warm and ready to become on
occasion a burning flame; their whole minds are elevated, because they
are possessed with the dignity of that nature they share, and of the
society in the midst of which they move.
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