Page:Prison-Life Thoughts.djvu/95

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
PRISON-LIFE THOUGHTS.
87

A majority of a small minority is sufficient for one man to desire for a successful reform; in fact, the majority of a small minority of good and wise people is equal, if not superior, to the great majority of the whole nation. Few popular men ever receive the plaudits of a greater number; if they do, they are deformers, instead of reformers; because the devil has already secured by far the great majority.


It will always be found by close observation that the roughest men have the best and warmest hearts; because they can appreciate as well as depreciate; and embrace good as well as deface ill; and drink-in as well as throw-out! They are like good fruit trees, having the roughest side outside, whilst pure sap, milk and honey run throughout every blood vessel, which deposit an excrement that forms the bark, protecting the inner life against the contaminations of foreign things! Nature herself is rough and smooth betimes.