im a worm, and throw that mess of pottage at him! This refined
evil-doer may be as energetic as he pleases in his actions, but it
would be well if he were a little more quiet in his words. If he looks
within, he will find that the distinction on which he prides himself
is wholly superficial; and that such language is very unbecoming the
lips of one who might more truly, as well as more politely, say to
corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother
and my sister.

The main cause of such anomalies I take to be, that there is among us
a general want of earnestness. We do not believe in ourselves, or our
duties, or our destinies. Our life has no theory, and we care only for
outward forms and symbols. Our taste is shocked by the grossness of
vice, but we have no quarrel with the thing itself; and if the people
around us will only preserve a polished, or at least inoffensive
exterior, that is all we demand. Why should we look below the surface
in their case, when we do no such thing in our own? We feel amiable,
genteel, and refined; we detest the appearance of low impropriety, and
would take a good deal of trouble to put it down; we look very kindly
on the world in general, if the low people who are in it would only
become as decorous as ourselves. In the old republics, the case was
different. There men had a theory, even if a bad one, and they stuck
to it through good report and through bad report. The theory was the
spirit of the community, and its members sacrificed to it their whole
individuality. No wonder that such little political unities held
together as if their component parts had been welded, and that they
continued to do so till they came into collision, and, from their
hardness and toughness, rubbed one another out.

Put down bribery and corruption: that is fair. And more especially put
down open, shameless, and brutal bribery and corruption, for its very
coarseness is, in itself, an additional crime. But no reform is
efficacious that does not come from within; and when refined men wage
war against vulgar vices, let them look sharply to their own. I do not
say, that by taking thought they will be able to do entirely away with
the seductive influence of a bow, or a dinner, or a kind action; and
that, in spite of these, they will do their duty with the stern
resolve of an ancient Spartan. But they will be less likely to yield
to temptation, and the price of their virtue will at least mount
h