Page:Precaution; a novel by Cooper, James Fenimore.djvu/104

92 elucidate his real character, well knowing that the requisites to bring or to keep happiness in the married state were numerous and indispensable; and that the display of a particular excellence, however good in itself, was by no means conclusive as to character; in short, that we perhaps as often meet with a favorite principle, as with a besetting sin.