Page:James Thomason (Temple).djvu/126

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118
JAMES THOMASON

justly says, "reputation is a brittle thing which the devil aims to hit in a special manner." So he would not allow himself to feel 'any morbid sensitiveness' to criticism. Personally and socially he found himself 'most cordially received.' But for a few years he hardly obtained from some of the elder officers, men of what would then have been called the old school, an adoption of his policy ex animo, though they duly rendered official obedience. He had really to work, as he himself would say, through the younger men. The new-comers, the recently appointed officers, the freshmen, so to speak, in the great official college, became his zealous disciples. But as public life advances with rapid strides in India, the younger men soon became the seniors and the leaders; so by degrees he found himself possessing influence over all alike.