y pretended meeting of the public. Common sense, not to say
common honesty, began to resume its sway, and prudence put in its
plea, by way of applying the corrective. Both he and Mr. Dodge,
however, agreed that there was an unheard-of temerity in thus
resisting the people, and this too without a commensurate object, as
the pecuniary value of the disputed point was of no material
consequence to either party.

The reader is not, by any means, to suppose that Aristabulus Bragg
and Steadfast Dodge belonged to the same variety of the human
species, in consequence of their unity of sentiment in this affair,
and certain other general points of resemblance in their manner and
modes of thinking. As a matter of necessity each partook of those
features of caste, condition, origin, and association that
characterize their particular set; but when it came to the nicer
distinctions that mark true individuality, it would not have been
easy to find two men more essentially different in character. The
first was bold, morally and physically, aspiring, self-possessed,
shrewd, singularly adapted to succeed in his schemes where he knew
the parties, intelligent, after his tastes, and apt. Had it been his
fortune to be thrown earlier into a better sphere, the same natural
qualities that rendered him so expert in his present situation, would
have conduced to his improvement, and most probably would have formed
a gentleman, a scholar, and one who could have contributed largely to
the welfare and tastes of his fellow-creatures. That such was not his
fate, was more his misfortune than his fault, for his plastic
character had readily taken the impression of those things that from
propinquity alone, pressed hardest on it. On the other hand Steadfast
was a hypocrite by nature, cowardly, envious, and malignant; and
circumstances had only lent their aid to the natural tendencies of
his disposition. That two men so differently constituted at their
births, should meet, as it might be in a common centre, in so many of
their habits and opinions, was merely the result of accident and
education.

Among the other points of resemblance between these two persons, was
that fault of confounding the cause with the effects of the peculiar
institutions under which they had been educated and lived. Because
the law gave to the public, that authority which, under other
systems, is entrusted either to one, or to the few they believed the
public was invested with far