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no greater torture than that of being
charged with abnormal weakness on
account of being abnormally strong.

In like manner, nothing can
be clearer than that a very generous
spirit—truly feeling what all mere-
ly profess—must inevitably find
itself misconceived in every direct-
ion—its motives misinterpreted.
Just as extremeness of intelligence
would be thought fatuity, so excess
of chivalry could not fail of being
looked upon as meanness in its
last degree:—and so on with other
virtues. This subject is a painful
one indeed. That individuals have
so soared above the plane of their
race, is scarcely to be questioned;
but, in looking back through his-
tory for traces of their existence, we
should pass over all biographies
of "the good and the great," while
we search carefully the slight re-
cords of wretches who died in pri-
son, in Bedlam, or upon the gal-
lows.