Page:Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical, vol. II, 1866.djvu/60

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
50
FELIX HOLT.

In this way Mr Jermyn inwardly appealed against an unjust construction which he foresaw that his old acquaintance the Law might put on certain items in his history.

I have known persons who have been suspected of undervaluing gratitude, and excluding it from the list of virtues; but on closer observation it has been seen that, if they have never felt grateful, it has been for want of an opportunity; and that, far from despising gratitude, they regard it as the virtue most of all incumbent—on others towards them.