So he determined that the advance should be as small as possible; and, so long as he continued to doubt his recovery, lived in an upper room, and grudged himself all but necessaries.

But so soon as he began to perceive a change for the better, he felt justified in spending more freely, to speed and brighten his return to health, and trusted in the future to lend a help to mankind, as mankind, out of its treasury, had lent a help to him.
I do not say but that my friend was a little too curious and partial in his view; nor thought too much of himself and too little of his parents; but I do say that here are some scruples which tormented my friend in his youth, and still, perhaps, at odd times give him a prick in the midst of his enjoyments, and which after all have some foundation in justice, and point, in their confused way, to some more honourable honesty within the reach of man.

And at least, is not this an unusual gloss upon the eighth commandment?
And what sort of comfort, guidance, or illumination did that precept afford my friend throughout these contentions?
'Thou shalt not steal.' With all my heart! But _am_ I stealing?
The truly quaint materialism of our view of life disables us from pursuing any transaction to an end.

You can make no one understand that his bargain is anything more than a bargain, whereas in point of fact it is a link in the policy of mankind, and either a good or an evil to the world.

We have a sort of blindness which prevents us from seeing anything but sovereigns.