The termination of the struggle proved
Neville a true hero. He not only confessed but abjured his errors. "I
have," said he, "brooded too deeply over my injuries, and thus have
added to my plagues by inflicting on myself more torments than even my
enemies designed I should feel. Born with too exquisite sensibility of
ill-treatment, proceeding possibly from inordinate self-esteem, disposed
to ardent attachment and unbounded confidence, I measured the hearts of
others by my own, and supposed that they equally revered the claims of
generosity and friendship; for never did I expect a service, which in a
change of situations, I would not have rendered unasked; never have I
condemned a fault but those so abhorrent to my nature that, I would have
died rather than have committed them. Condemned by the triumphant
treachery of a man, in all things my inferior, to indigence and
obscurity; all the liberal feelings I so dearly cherished palsied by my
inability to expand the social charities beyond the narrow limits of my
own family, I ruminated on the glorious indulgences resulting from, the
possession of that power and affluence I was born to inherit.
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