Very much of human discontent arises from first hearing our wrongs
described by others:
Rufus Choate, the American lawyer, defended a blacksmith whose
creditor had seized some iron that a friend had lent him to
assist in the business after a bankruptcy. The seizure of the
iron was said to have been made harshly. Choate thus described
it: “He arrested the arm of industry as it fell toward the
anvil; he put out the breath of his bellows; he extinguished the
fire upon his hearthstone. Like pirates in a gale at sea, his
enemies swept everything by the board, leaving, gentlemen of
the jury, not so much--not so much as a horseshoe to nail upon
the door-post to keep the witches off.” The blacksmith, sitting
behind, was seen to have tears in his eyes at this description,
and a friend noticing it, said: “Why, Tom, what’s the matter
with you? What are you blubbering about?” “I had no idea,” said
Tom in a whisper, “that I had been so abominably ab-ab bused.”
(Text.)--CROAKE JAMES, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”
(1573)
See INSPIRATION.
=Incitement to Evil=--See RESPONSIBILITY EVADED.