the law in pronouncing the sentence, and its delegate in enforcing
the execution, could not but furnish occasional food to the spirit of
detraction, must be evident to every reflecting mind. It is indeed
little less than impossible, that he, who in order to be effectively
humane determines to be inflexibly just, and who is inexorable to his
own feelings when they would interrupt the course of justice; who
looks at each particular act by the light of all its consequences,
and as the representative of ultimate good or evil; should not
sometimes be charged with tyranny by weak minds. And it is too
certain that the calumny will be willingly believed and eagerly
propagated by all those who would shun the presence of an eye keen in
the detection of imposture, incapacity, and misconduct, and of a
resolution as steady in their exposure. We soon hate the man whose
qualities we dread, and thus have a double interest, an interest of
passion as well as of policy, in decrying and defaming him. But good
men will rest satisfied with the promise made to them by the Divine
Comforter, that by her children shall Wisdom be justified.



ESSAY IV.



- the generous spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his childish thought:
Whose high endeavours are an inward light
That makes the path before him always bright;
Who, doom'd to go in company with pain,