Chapter XXVIII.
"It will have blood; they say, blood
Will have blood!"
Macbeth.
The visiters were Dr. Ergot, the Reverend Meek Wolfe, Ensign Dudley, and
Reuben Ring. Content found these four individuals seated in an outer room,
in a grave and restrained manner, that would have done no discredit to the
self-command of an Indian council. He was saluted with those staid and
composed greetings which are still much used in the intercourse of the
people of the Eastern States of this Republic, and which have obtained for
them a reputation, where they are little known, of a want of the more
active charities of our nature. But that was peculiarly the age of
sublimated doctrines, of self-mortification, and of severe moral
government, and most men believed it a merit to exhibit, on all
occasions, the dominion of the mind over the mere animal impulses. The
usage, which took its rise in exalted ideas of spiritual perfection, has
since grown into a habit, which, though weakened by the influence of the
age, still exists to a degree that often leads to an erroneous estimate of
character.
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