its cause, and strongly impressed with the idea of
its being unmerited, that, while I suffered deeply, I still continued to
pity, rather than hate my persecutor. But this incident introduced some
change into my feelings. I said, "Surely he might now believe that he
had sufficiently disarmed me, and might at length suffer me to be at
peace. At least, ought he not to be contented to leave me to my fate,
the perilous and uncertain condition of an escaped felon, instead of
thus whetting the animosity and vigilance of my countrymen against me?
Were his interference on my behalf in opposition to the stern severity
of Mr. Forester, and his various acts of kindness since, a mere part
that he played in order to lull me into patience? Was he perpetually
haunted with the fear of an ample retaliation, and for that purpose did
he personate remorse, at the very moment that he was secretly keeping
every engine at play that could secure my destruction?" The very
suspicion of such a fact filled me with inexpressible horror, and
struck a sudden chill through every fibre of my frame.

My wound was by this time completely healed, and it became absolutely
necessary that I should form some determination respecting the future.
My habits of thinking were such as gave me an uncontrollable repugnance
to the vocation of my hosts. I did not indeed feel that aversion and
abhorrence to the men which are commonly entertained. I saw and
respected their good qualities and their virtues. I was by no means
inclined to believe them worse men, or more hostile in their
dispositions to the welfare of their species, than the generality of
those that look down upon them with most censure. But, though I did not
cease to love them as individuals, my eyes were perfectly open to their
mistakes. If I should otherwise have been in danger of being misled, it
was my fortune to have studied felons in a jail before I studied them in
their state of comparative prosperity; and this was an infallible
antidote to the poison. I saw that in this profession were exerted
uncommon energy, ingenuity, and fortitude, and I could not help
recollecting how admirably beneficial such qualities might be made in
the great theatre of human affairs; while, in their present direction,
they were thrown away upon purposes diametrically at war with the first
interests of human society. Nor were their proceedings less injurious to
their own interest than incompatible with the general welfare. T