I am not, however, Stoic enough to be able to affirm with truth, or
hypocrite enough affectedly to pretend, that I am wholly unmoved at the
difficulty which you and others of my friends in Ireland have found in
vindicating my conduct towards my native country. It undoubtedly hurts
me in some degree: but the wound is not very deep. If I had sought
popularity in Ireland, when, in the cause of that country, I was ready
to sacrifice, and did sacrifice, a much nearer, a much more immediate,
and a much more advantageous popularity here, I should find myself
perfectly unhappy, because I should be totally disappointed in my
expectations,--because I should discover, when it was too late, what
common sense might have told me very early, that I risked the capital of
my fame in the most disadvantageous lottery in the world. But I acted
then, as I act now, and as I hope I shall act always, from a strong
impulse of right, and from motives in which popularity, either here or
there, has but a very little part.
With the support of that consciousness I can bear a good deal of the
coquetry of public opinion, which has her caprices, and must have her
way.
Pages:
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273