Let a man put
his hat down, and you shall say whether he has deposited it with
affectation or true nature. The natural man will probably be manly.
The affected man cannot be so.
Mrs. Low was wrong when she accused our hero of being unmanly. Had
his imagination been less alert in looking into the minds of men, and
in picturing to himself the thoughts of others in reference to the
crime with which he had been charged, he would not now have shrunk
from contact with his fellow-creatures as he did. But he could not
pretend to be other than he was. During the period of his danger,
when men had thought that he would be hung,--and when he himself had
believed that it would be so,--he had borne himself bravely without
any conscious effort. When he had confronted the whole Court with
that steady courage which had excited Lord Chiltern's admiration, and
had looked the Bench in the face as though he at least had no cause
to quail, he had known nothing of what he was doing. His features had
answered the helm from his heart, but had not been played upon by his
intellect.
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