I very much desire that we may be judged every man by himself, and would not be drawn into the consequence of common examples.

My own weakness nothing alters the esteem I ought to have for the force and vigour of those who deserve it: "Sunt qui nihil suadent, quam quod se imitari posse confidunt." ["There are who persuade nothing but what they believe they can imitate themselves."-- Cicero, De Orator., c.

7.] Crawling upon the slime of the earth, I do not for all that cease to observe up in the clouds the inimitable height of some heroic souls.
'Tis a great deal for me to have my judgment regular and just, if the effects cannot be so, and to maintain this sovereign part, at least, free from corruption; 'tis something to have my will right and good where my legs fail me.

This age wherein we live, in our part of the world at least, is grown so stupid, that not only the exercise, but the very imagination of virtue is defective, and seems to be no other but college jargon: "Virtutem verba putant, ut Lucum ligna:" ["They think words virtue, as they think mere wood a sacred grove." -- Horace, Ep., i.

6, 31.] "Quam vereri deberent, etiam si percipere non possent." ["Which they ought to reverence, though they cannot comprehend." -- Cicero, Tusc.Quas., v.