ss of intellect.
To women he allowed the privilege of being, in regard to thought, only
something better than dogs. When his sister Martha shuddered at some
exclamation from his mouth, he would say to himself simply that she was
a woman, not an idiot or a hypocrite. Of women, old and young, he had
been very fond, and in his manner to them very tender; but when a woman
rose to a way of thinking akin to his own, she was no longer a woman to
his senses. Against such a one his taste revolted. She sunk to the level
of a man contaminated by petticoats. And law was hardly less absurd to
him than religion. It consisted of a perplexed entanglement of rules got
together so that the few might live in comfort at the expense of the
many.

Robbery, if you could get to the bottom of it, was bad, as was all
violence; but taxation was robbery, rent was robbery, prices fixed
according to the desire of the seller and not in obedience to justice,
were robbery. "Then you are the greatest of robbers," his friends would
say to him. He would admit it, allowing that in such a state of society
he was not prepared to go out and live naked in the streets if he could
help it. But he delighted to get the better of the law, and triumphed in
his own iniquity, as has been seen by his conduct in reference to his
sons.

In this way he lived, and was kind to many people, having a generous and
an open hand. But he was a man who could hate with a bitter hatred, and
he hated most those suspected by him of mean or dirty conduct. Mr. Grey,
who constantly told him to his face that he was a rascal, he did not
hate at all. Thinking Mr. Grey to be in some respects idiotic, he
respected him, and almost loved him. He thoroughly believed Mr. Grey,
thinking him to be an ass for telling so much truth unnecessarily. And
he had loved his son Mountjoy in spite of all his iniquities, and had
fostered him till it was impossible to foster him any longer. Then he
had endeavored to love Augustus, and did not in the least love him the
less because his son told him frequently of the wicked things he had
done. He did not object to be told of his wickedness even by his son.
But Augustus suspected him of other things than those of which he
accused him, and attempted to be sharp with him and to get the better
of him at his own game. And his son laughed at him and scorned him, and
regarded him as one who was troublesome only for a time, and who need
not be treated with much attenti