Richard, you may have observed, was no whit better, no less selfish, than were those about him; and it is as well to know our faulty young gentleman for what he really was.
Richard not only considered the politics of men, but he studied men themselves.

The narrowest of these came from parts of the country where region was important, and where you would have been more thought of for the deeds of your grandfather than for anything that you yourself might do.

This was peculiarly true of men from New England, whose intelligence as well as interest seemed continually walking a tight-rope.

The New Englander was always and ever the sublimation of a blind, ineffable vanity that went about proposing him as an example to the race.

And so consciously self-perfect was he that, while coming to opinions touching others, generally to their disadvantage, he never once bethought him that others might be forming opinions of him.