We are attracted by salient points, and, seeing them clearly, we jump to conclusions, as though there were a light-house on every point by which the nature of the coast would certainly be shown to us.

And so it will, if we accept the light only for so much of the shore as it illumines.

But to say that a man is insincere because he has vacillated in this or the other difficulty, that he is a coward because he has feared certain dangers, that he is dishonest because he has swerved, that he is a liar because an untrue word has been traced to him, is to suppose that you know all the coast because one jutting headland has been defined to you.

He who so expresses himself on a man's character is either ignorant of human nature, or is in search of stones with which to pelt his enemy.

"He has lied! He has lied!" How often in our own political contests do we hear the cry with a note of triumph! And if he have, how often has he told the truth?
And if he have, how many are entitled by pure innocence in that matter to throw a stone at him?
And if he have, do we not know how lies will come to the tongue of a man without thought of lying?
In his stoutest efforts after the truth a man may so express himself that when afterward he is driven to compare his recent and his former words, he shall hardly be able to say even to himself that he has not lied.