The defects of his person had embittered his mind; the atheism of his benefactor had deadened his conscience.
For one great excellence of religion--above all, the Religion of the Cross--is, that it raises PATIENCE first into a virtue, and next into a hope.

Take away the doctrine of another life, of requital hereafter, of the smile of a Father upon our sufferings and trials in our ordeal here, and what becomes of patience?
But without patience, what is man ?--and what a people?
Without patience, art never can be high; without patience, liberty never can be perfected.

By wild throes, and impetuous, aimless struggles, Intellect seeks to soar from Penury, and a nation to struggle into Freedom.

And woe, thus unfortified, guideless, and unenduring,--woe to both! Nicot was a villain as a boy.

In most criminals, however abandoned, there are touches of humanity,--relics of virtue; and the true delineator of mankind often incurs the taunt of bad hearts and dull minds, for showing that even the worst alloy has some particles of gold, and even the best that come stamped from the mint of Nature have some adulteration of the dross.