Page:History of Freedom.djvu/480

 XII

CARDINAL WISEMAN AND THE HOME AND FOREIGN REVIEW 1

IT is one of the conditions inseparable from a public career to be often misunderstood, and sometim s judged unfairly even \vhen understood the best. Noone who has watched the fonnation of public opinion ,vill be disposed to attribute all the unjust judgments which assail him to the malice of individuals, or to imagine that he can prevent misconceptions or vindicate his good name by words alone. He kno\vs that even where he has committed no errors he must pay tribute to the fallibility of mankind, and that where he is in fault he must also pay tribute to his own. This is a natural la\v; and the purer a man's conscience is, and the more single his aim, the less eager \vill he be to evade it, or to defend himself from its penalties. The man whose career is bound up ,vith that of some school or party will estÍ1nate the value of his opponents' censures by the worth which he attributes to the undis- criminating praise of his friends; but he who has devoted himself to the development of principles which will not always bend to the dictates of expediency will have no such short way of dealing with objections. His independ- ence will frequently and inexorably demand the sacrifice of interests to truth-of \vhat is politic to \vhat is right;

1_ .. Rome and the Catholic Episcopate, Reply of His Eminence Cardinal \Viseman to an Address presented by the Clergy, Secular and Regular, of the Archdiocese of Westminster, on Tuesday, the 5th of August 1862, It London: Burns and Lambert, (J-Iùme and /'òreign Re7.!iew, 1862.) 43 6