oney nor
place is wanted, a gracious look and an invitation to dinner may have
quite a telling effect. In fact, the more refined men have become,
through the action of circumstances, such as education and position,
the more abstracted and attenuated is the equivalent they demand for
their virtue; till we reach the highest grade of all, whose noble
natures, as they are called, can be seduced only by affection and
gratitude. Now observe: in all these cases the _thing_ is the same,
whether it be crime we have been tempted to commit, or mere
illegality; the only distinction lies in the value of the _quid pro
quo_. But is there a distinction even in that? I doubt the fact. I
don't say there is none, but I doubt it. Value is entirely arbitrary.
One man, at the lower end of the scale, sins for the sake of a pound;
and another, at the higher end, does the same thing for the sake of a
kindness. The two men place the same value on their several
equivalents, and each finds his own irresistible. Are they not both
equally guilty?

That a refined man is better than a coarse one, I admit. He is
pleasanter, and not only so, but safer. We know his virtue to be
secure from a thousand temptations before which meaner natures fall;
and to a large extent, therefore, we feel him to be worthy of our
trust. He will not betray us for a pound, or a dinner, or a place, or
a coaxing word, or a condescending bow: but we must not go too far
with him for all that. He has his price as surely as the meanest of
his fellows; and let him only come in the way of a temptation he
values as highly as the other values his miserable pound, and down he
goes! Refined natures, therefore, are only comparatively trustworthy;
and, however estimable or admirable they may be under other
circumstances, when they do fail they are as guilty as the rest. It is
a bad thing altogether, bribery and corruption is; and I don't object
to your putting it down when it takes that material form of money you
can so readily get hold of. But what I hate is the cant that is canted
about it by those who have not even the virtue to take their
equivalent on the sly. For it is a remarkable thing, that when this
does not come in a material shape, such as you can count or handle, it
is looked upon by the bribee as no bribe at all! Nay, in some cases he
will glory in his crime, as if it were a virtue; and in all cases he
will turn round upon his fellow-criminal--him of the vulgar sort--call
h