These defeats were wormwood to my soul; and, if I am criminal, the parties concerned in them have been the cause of the crime." "A very consoling argument, if you could only prove it!" "Very likely--you are not alone.

The million would say with yourself.
But hear the case as I put it, and not as it is put by the majority.
Providence endowed me with a certain superiority of mind over my fellows.

I had capacities which they had not--talents to which they did not aspire, and the possession of which they readily conceded to me.
These talents fitted me for certain stations in society, to which, as I had the talents pre-eminently for such stations, the inference is fair that Providence intended me for some such stations.

But I was denied my place.

Society, guilty of favoritism and prejudice, gave to others, not so well fitted as myself for its purposes or necessities, the station in all particulars designed for me.