except in the extremely rare case of being employed to humble the
wicked, and to terrify them from pursuing the path of crime, even as
the usurers were driven by an angry Saviour, from polluting his holy
Temple. Violence and excitement, perhaps, differing altogether from
what I felt, are no less blamable. Mine was the mania of despair
and affliction: I felt a disposition, while suffering under its
horrors, to hate and to curse mankind. Several individuals, in
particular, appeared to my imagination depicted in the most
revolting colours. It is a sort of moral epidemic, I believe,
springing from vanity and selfishness; for when a man despises and
detests his fellow-creatures, he necessarily assumes that he is much
better than the rest of the world. The doctrine of such men amounts
to this:- "Let us admire only one another, if we turn the rest of
mankind into a mere mob, we shall appear like demi-gods on earth."
It is a curious fact that living in a state of hostility and rage
actually affords pleasure; it seems as if people thought there was a
species of heroism in it. If, unfortunately, the object of our
wrath happens to die, we lose no time in finding some one to fill
the vacant place. Whom shall I attack next, whom shall I hate? Ah!
is that the villain I was looking out for? What a prize! Now my
friends, at him, give him no quarter. Such is the world, and,
without uttering a libel, I may add that it is not what it ought to
be.



CHAPTER XVIII.