Did that condemn him?
No! He knew no other public opinion till he came to be hanged, and caught the loathing eyes, and heard the hissing execrations of the crowd below his gibbet.) So, also, the public opinion of the great is the opinion of their equals,--of those whom birth and accident cast for ever in their way.

This distinction is full of important practical deductions; it is one which, more than most maxims, should never be forgotten by a politician who desires to be profound.

It is, then, an ordeal terrible to pass--which few plebeians ever pass, which it is therefore unjust to expect patricians to cross unfaulteringly--the ordeal of opposing the public opinion which exists for them.

They cannot help doubting their own judgment,--they cannot help thinking the voice of wisdom or of virtue speaks in those sounds which have been deemed oracles from their cradle.

In the tribunal of Sectarian Prejudice they imagine they recognise the court of the Universal Conscience.