throw one in your turn, and to unite with those who bruise and beat him in pieces? Setting religion aside, how beautiful it is to declare for the unfortunate! How much real dignity and greatness of soul in sheltering under our protection those abandoned by the world! And, even admitting the rules of charity were not to make it a duty to us, the feelings alone of glory and humanity should in this case be sufficient.
Thirdly. You not only violate the holy rules of charity, but you are also a breaker of those of justice; for the faults of your brother are public; let it be so; but place yourself in the same situation, would you exact from him less deference, or less humanity, were your disgrace to be no longer a mystery? Would you agree, that the public example gave to your brother a right against you, which you arrogate to yourself against him? Would you accept on his part, in justification of his malignity, an excuse which would render him still more odious, mean, and cruel? Besides, how do you know whether the author of all these reports be not an impostor? So many false reports are circulated in the world; and the malice of men renders them so credulous on the faults of others! How do you know but these calumnies have been circulated by an enemy, a rival, or some envious person, in order to ruin him, who has thwarted his passions or his fortune? Are such instances rare? Whether it be not some heedless person who has given occasion to all these discourses, by an indiscreet expression, uttered without thought, and laid hold of through malice. Are such mistakes impossible? Whether it be not a mere conjecture, originally circulated as such, and afterwards given as a truth? Are such alterations uncommon in public rumours? What could have a greater appearance of feasibility, to the children of the captivity, than the alleged misconduct of Susanna. The judges of the people of God, venerable through their age and dignity, deposed against her; the people exclaimed against her as an adulteress; they looked upon her as the disgrace of Israel; nevertheless, it was her modesty alone which drew upon her these insults; and had not a Daniel been found in her time, who had the courage to doubt a general report, the blood of that innocent woman must have stained the whole people. And, without departing from our gospel, were not the sacrilegious reports, which held out Jesus as an impostor and Samaritan, become the public discourses of all Judea? The Priests and Pharisees, to whom the the dignity of their station, and the regularity of their manners, attracted the respect and confidence of the people, strengthened them by their authority. Nevertheless, would you excuse such amongst the Jews as, on reports so common, spoke of the Saviour of the world as a seducer, who imposed on the credulity of the people? You expose yourself, then, to the guilt of having calumniated your brother; however circulated the rumours against him may be, his crime, of which you have not been a witness, is always dubious to you, and you do him an injustice, when you propagate as true, what you have only heard from public reports, often false, and always rash.
