You will strain at a gnat in the way of
trustfulness and confidence, however fairly won and well deserved;
but you will swallow a whole caravan of camels, if they be laden
with unworthy doubts and mean suspicions. Is this well, think you,
or likely to elevate the character of the governors or the
governed, among you?'
The answer is invariably the same: 'There's freedom of opinion
here, you know. Every man thinks for himself, and we are not to be
easily overreached. That's how our people come to be suspicious.'
Another prominent feature is the love of 'smart' dealing: which
gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust; many a
defalcation, public and private; and enables many a knave to hold
his head up with the best, who well deserves a halter; though it
has not been without its retributive operation, for this smartness
has done more in a few years to impair the public credit, and to
cripple the public resources, than dull honesty, however rash,
could have effected in a century. The merits of a broken
speculation, or a bankruptcy, or of a successful scoundrel, are not
gauged by its or his observance of the golden rule, 'Do as you
would be done by,' but are considered with reference to their
smartness.
Pages:
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462