Page 65 - THE SCARLET LETTER

The Scarlet Letter

singularly irksome, and, in every contingency,
disagreeable, that a wretched mortal can possibly occupy;
with seldom an alternative of good on either hand,
although what presents itself to him as the worst event

may very probably be the best. But it is a strange
experience, to a man of pride and sensibility, to know that
his interests are within the control of individuals who
neither love nor understand him, and by whom, since one
or the other must needs happen, he would rather be
injured than obliged. Strange, too, for one who has kept
his calmness throughout the contest, to observe the
bloodthirstiness that is developed in the hour of triumph,
and to be conscious that he is himself among its objects!
There are few uglier traits of human nature than this
tendency—which I now witnessed in men no worse than
their neighbours—to grow cruel, merely because they
possessed the power of inflicting harm. If the guillotine, as
applied to office-holders, were a literal fact, instead of one
of the most apt of metaphors, it is my sincere belief that
the active members of the victorious party were
sufficiently excited to have chopped off all our heads, and
have thanked Heaven for the opportunity! It appears to
me—who have been a calm and curious observer, as well
in victory as defeat—that this fierce and bitter spirit of

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