And it is but just to say that motives nobler than ambition or fear had a large share in determining his course.

His heart was naturally compassionate; and this was an occasion which could not fail to call forth all his compassion.

His situation had prevented his good feelings from fully developing themselves.

Sympathy is rarely strong where there is a great inequality of condition; and he was raised so high above the mass of his fellow creatures that their distresses excited in him only a languid pity, such as that with which we regard the sufferings of the inferior animals, of a famished redbreast or of an overdriven posthorse.

The devastation of the Palatinate and the persecution of the Huguenots had therefore given him no uneasiness which pride and bigotry could not effectually soothe.