“There you are deceived,” said I; “I have the greatest reason to believe that you are deceived.”
“The most cunning,” was the reply, “can always contrive to appear the most simple.”
“If it were so, we ought never to give credit to the least goodness in any one.”
“Yes, there are certain social stations,” he replied, “in which men’s manners may appear to great advantage by means of education; but as to virtue, they have none of it.”
I could only answer, “You exaggerate, sir, you exaggerate.”
“I am only consistent,” he insisted. We were here interrupted, and I called to mind the cave a censequentariis of Leibnitz.
Too many are inclined to adopt this false and terrible doctrine. I follow the standard A, that is JUSTICE. Another follows standard B; it must therefore be that of INJUSTICE, and, consequently, he must be a villain!
Give me none of your logical madness; whatever standard you adopt, do not reason so inhumanly. Consider, that by assuming what data you please, and proceeding with the most violent stretch of rigour from one consequence to another, it is easy for any one to come to the conclusion that, “Beyond we four, all the rest of the world deserve to be burnt alive.” And if we are at the pains of investigating a little further, we shall find each of the four crying out, “All deserve to be burnt alive together, with the exception of I myself.”
This vulgar tenet of exclusiveness is in the highest degree unphilosophical. A moderate degree of suspicion is wise, but when urged to the extreme, it is the opposite.
After the hint thus thrown out to me respecting that angelo custode, I turned to study him with greater attention than I had before done; and each day served to convince me more and more of his friendly and generous nature.