RETROSPECT. 213 



mitted in that portion of time which was measured out 

 by the past year ? The more I consider the more clearly 

 do I see that the evil I have- committed in it was of a 

 positive, the good merely of a negative, kind. All that 

 I can urge in my defence is, that I might have entered 

 still deeper into evil than I have. done. But will this 

 defence serve ? Were it to serve in an earthly court, 

 the vilest criminal could with justice allege it ; and will 

 God, in whom dwelleth, and from whom cometh, all 

 wisdom, accept it from His creatures ? Alas ! hope 

 itself cannot build on a foundation like this. If man- 

 kind have no better plea they are surely lost ; yet self- 

 love, in the very face of reason, whispereth the contrary. 

 Ah, William, there can be no greater deceiver than self- 

 love no flatterer more dangerous for there is none we 

 suspect less. Often, when we think of a future state of 

 being, of an Almighty Judge, and of our own appear- 

 ance before Him, in our, imaginations we not only pic- 

 ture that Judge as merciful, but we even conceive of 

 Him as possessed of feelings and partialities, and con- 

 sequently of weaknesses, like ourselves. We deem Him 

 to be One who will look upon our faults with the same 

 favourable eye with which we ourselves regard them 

 as One who will give us credit for the merits which we 

 think we possess. Alas ! we do not consider that one- 

 half of these imagined merits are fictitious, the children 

 of our fancy ; and that the other half of them consist of 

 natural talents and propensities which have, for wise 

 ends, been given us, but which we have misapplied. 

 And what, then, remains ? As I have said already, I 

 must say again, that man's best plea, if he ground his 

 defence on works, is, that he has not committed all 

 the evil which he might have committed ; and I must 

 say again that, if mankind have no better plea than this, 



