116
the truly benevolent. The man of character is he who, in the dark day of doubt or in the troublous day of trial, acts, neither from the calculations of policy nor from the promptings of future profit, but entirely from an instinctive adherence to the sense of the right, firmly clings to, and faithfully follows, what he knows and believes to be the rights the due, the proper, the ought. Be it the payment of a time-barred debt or the recognition of a voiceless rival ; be it the surrender of per- sonal gain in obedience to the supreme call of unpopular truth or a loyal adherence to the post of danger while destructive fixes devouringly gather around— whichever be the situation— the man of character is the votary of the ought, of the right, of the due; of the proper. And this sense of the ought does not argue, does not calculate. It its purely and entirely instinctive. It feels and resolves. It does not act and! watch. It acts and pases on. Consequently, it requires something more than the* mere sense of principle,, the mere feeling
