Defence of Criminals 



To return then for a moment to the practical 

 bearing of this on the question before us, we 

 see that so soon as we have abandoned all codes 

 of morals there remains nothing for us but to put 

 all our qualities and defects to human use, and 

 to redeem them by so doing. Our defects are our 

 entrances into life, and the gateway of all our dealings 

 with others. Think what it is to be plain and 

 homely. The very word suggests an endear- 

 ment, and a liberty of access denied to the faultlessly 

 handsome. Our very evil passions, so called, are 

 not things to be ashamed of, but things to look 

 straight in the face and to see what they are good 

 for for a use can be found for them, that is 

 certain. The man should see that he is worthy 

 of his passion, as the mountain should rear its 

 crest conformable to the height of the precipice 

 which bounds it. Is it women ? let him see 

 that he is a magnanimous lover. Is it ambition ? 

 let him take care that it be a grand one. Is it 

 laziness ? let it redeem him from the folly of unrest, 

 to become heaven-reflecting, like a lake among 

 the hills. Is it closefistedness ? let it become 

 the nurse of a true economy. 



The more complicated, pronounced, or awkward 

 the defect is the finer will be the result when it 

 has been thoroughly worked up. Love of appro- 

 bation is difficult to deal with. Through sloughs 

 of duplicity, of concealment, of vanity, it leads 

 its victim. It sucks his sturdy self-life, and 

 leaves him flattened and bloodless. Yet once 

 mastered, once fairly torn out, cudgeled, and left 



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