How natural, nay, how inevitable it is, that we should fall into the
habit of appreciating and judging things mainly by the standards in
common use amongst those we respect and love. But these very standards
are apt to break down with us when we are brought face to face with
some question which takes us ever so little out of ourselves and our
usual moods. At such times we are driven to admit in our hearts that
we, and those we respect and love, have been looking at and judging
things, not truthfully, and therefore not courageously and manfully,
but conventionally. And then comes one of the most searching of all
trials of courage and manliness, when a man or woman is called to stand
by what approves itself to their consciences as true, and to protest
for it through evil report and good report, against all discouragement
and opposition from those they love or respect. The sense of antagonism
instead of rest, of distrust and alienation instead of approval and
sympathy, which such times bring, is a test which tries the very
heart and reins, and it is one which meets us at all ages, and in
all conditions of life. Emerson’s hero is the man who, “taking both
reputation and life in his hand, will with perfect urbanity dare the
gibbet and the mob, by the resolute truth of his speech and rectitude
of his behavior.”