To such a character, any appearance or
suspicion of coldness, or indifference towards the public good, and much
more any appearance or suspicion of uncommon devotion to self, however
fallacious such appearance or suspicion may be, is political death,
without the hope of resurrection. Such a character must lose sight of
self altogether, compared with the public, or the public will be very
apt to lose sight of him, or seeing, not to trust him. As to Sidney,
knowing him as I do, I know that those appearances of which I have
spoken are entirely fallacious; that his laxity in conversation is only
sportiveness; that his attention to his own interests does not surpass
the bounds of ordinary prudence; that, on a proper occasion, no man is
more charitable, generous, or munificent; none more alive to the
misfortunes and even solicitudes of a virtuous sufferer; that his
apparent coldness is the effect only of mental abstraction and of
judicious caution and reflection; and, in part, of that strong and
exhausting flame with which his friendship burns for those whom he
grapples to his heart.
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