It is like raising a sumptuous pile
for the mere gratification of witnessing its destruction.
It is not the _enormity_, but the _certainty_, of punishment that deters
mankind from evil. Hope will always gain the ascendancy.
Precept and example are great opposites. The one is generally too
extravagantly lavished: the other abridges more personal comfort than
most people like to sacrifice.
Few individuals are patriotic enough to participate in the correction of
a public abuse, until the corruption produces personal inconvenience.
Flattery will ever, more or less, accompany the first overtures to
friendship. It may not be deemed impolitic if it be found to recede as
the intimacy matures.
W.H.
* * * * *
RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.
* * * * *
ROBIN HOOD.
Lithe and lysten, gentylmen,
That be of frebore blode,
I shall you tell of a good yeman,
His name was Robyn Hode.
_Old Ballad_.
Centuries have passed away, yet are the merry men of the cross-bow not
forgotten. The oft-told tale of blended theft and charity has run the
round of ages, delighting the homely circle; historians and poets have
found in them a theme suited to their energies, and sung the song of
their exploits to everlasting remembrance.
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