Page:Henry Northcote (IA henrynorthcote00snairich).pdf/259

 morning, with a great fire burning in my veins, I wondered by what miracle it was, I wondered by what signal act of grace, I too did not stand among you in my capacity of a private citizen, to bear my part in this saturnalia of justice. Who was I, that I should not be plucked from among my family and my friends, from my peaceful vocations and my modest toil, to do to death a woman? Who was I, that I should be exempt from this bitter degradation which my peers are called upon to suffer? And in thinking these thoughts, my friends, it came upon me suddenly—call it a prophetic foresight if you will—that one of these days I should be called to sit among you. And I said to myself, 'When that comes to pass, what will you do?' I said to myself, 'What will you do?'

"At first I could make no answer. I was stupefied by the thought my too active imagination had conjured up. And then at last I said to myself, 'I shall ask for guidance in this matter; I shall ask for guidance from that tribunal which lies within my own nature.' And, my friends, there and then I turned to it, as though this thing had come of a verity to pass, for the sight of you all seated there in your despair had borne upon me so heavily that your situation had become my own.

"Now the answer that tribunal vouchsafed to me was this: 'Consider what your pastors and masters would do were they placed in your case. Consider what would be the attitude of those great minds that still burn like candles in the night of the time, whose radiance has warmed your veins, whose immortality has enriched your own personal nature. Consider what would be the conduct of those repre