of their own humane and charitable
feelings _after_ dinner, compared with the fierce, nay, atrocious
sentiments, which their consciences convict them of having entertained,
before the pangs of their raging hunger had been appeased by that
inestimable mollifier of men's hearts and tempers. For the cause of
their insensibility to such impressions--a natural incapacity for
receiving them--it is vain to seek a remedy, however willing we might be
to apply one; but where cure is impracticable, palliatives are
frequently admissible, and we would suggest that one may be found in
this case, in the patients' treating the unhappy privation under which
they labour with greater tenderness than has been their wont, throwing
over it that veil of oblivion and charity with which they so gracefully
conceal their other defects, instead of obtruding it on public
observation, under the singular misconception of its being an admirable
feature in their character, a something of which a man ought to be
proud. Conduct like this, they may rest assured, will not fail of being
appreciated and rewarded by the corresponding delicacy with which all,
who are not utterly barbarous, invariably treat him who, by the
deprecating humility with which he seeks to conceal his deficiencies,
betrays his painful cognisance of their existence.

We are aware that this is a turning of the tables upon them which they
may not be disposed to admire--to be placed at the bar, when they
expected a seat on the Bench, and were just smoothing down their ermine,
and adjusting their wigs, in order to enter on their duties with the
greater impressiveness and dignity; but they must believe us when we
tell them, that we, too, have an opinion on this subject, to which we
must be permitted to attribute as high authority as they possibly can to
their own; and that, tried by this standard, they, being found wanting,
would inevitably have been brought up for judgment, but for a merciful
leaning, (sanctioned by legal precedent,) which prompts us rather to try
the salutary effect of admonition and good counsel, than to proceed at
once to inflict extreme penalties on the offenders--in short, that we
are not in a hanging humour, or they should swing for it!

Grim, rough Luther, laying about him with his ponderous mace, and making
giant Pope tremble in the deepest recesses of his stronghold, lest he
should grow utterly savage with his perpetual warfare--albeit a "Holy
war"--humanized an