ian like Munro; but, to those who examine for
themselves, we shall utter nothing novel when we assert, that a respect
for superiority of mental and even mere moral attribute, enters largely
into the habit of the ruffian generally. The murderer is not
unfrequently found to possess benevolence as well as veneration in a
high degree; and the zealots of all countries and religions are almost
invariably creatures of strong and violent passions, to which the
extravagance of their zeal and devotion furnishes an outlet, which is
not always innocent in its direction or effects. Thus, in their
enthusiasm--which is only a minor madness--whether the Hindoo bramin or
the Spanish bigot, the English roundhead or the follower of the "only
true faith" at Mecca, be understood, it is but a word and a blow--though
the word be a hurried prayer to the God of their adoration, and the blow
be aimed with all the malevolence of hell at the bosom of a
fellow-creature. There is no greater inconsistency in the one character
than in the other. The temperament which, under false tuition, makes the
zealot, and drives him on to the perpetration of wholesale murder, while
uttering a prayer to the Deity, prompts the same individual who, as an
assassin or a highwayman, cuts your throat, and picks your pocket, and
at the next moment bestows his ill-gotten gains without reservation upon
the starving beggar by the wayside.

There was yet another reason which swayed Munro not a little in his
determination, if possible, to save the youth--and this was a lurking
sentiment of hostility to Rivers. His pride, of late, on many occasions,
had taken alarm at the frequent encroachments of his comrade upon its
boundaries. The too much repeated display of that very mental
superiority in his companion, which had so much fettered him, had
aroused his own latent sense of independence; and the utterance of
sundry pungent rebukes on the part of Rivers had done much towards
provoking within him a new sentiment of dislike for that person, which
gladly availed itself of the first legitimate occasion for exercise and
development. The very superiority which commanded, and which he honored,
he hated for that very reason; and, in our analysis of moral dependence,
we may add, that, in Greece, and the mere Hob of the humble farmhouse,
Munro might have been the countryman to vote Aristides into banishment
because of his reputation for justice. The barrier is slight, the space
short, t