We are aware that evidence cannot be drawn in this manner from an author's works merely, if unsupported by any external probability.

For example, the subject most frequently and powerfully treated by Hawthorne is the influence of a secret, unconfessed crime on the soul: nevertheless, as Hawthorne is well known to have always lived a pure and regular life, nobody has ever suspected him of any greater sin than a vigorous imagination.

But here is a man believed guilty of an uncommon immorality by the two best lawyers in England, and threatened with an open exposure, which he does not dare to meet.

The crime is named in society; his own relations fall away from him on account of it; it is only set at rest by the heroic conduct of his wife.

Now, this man is stated by many of his friends to have had all the appearance of a man secretly labouring under the consciousness of crime.