It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.—EMERSON.
Morley reflects on the challenge of maintaining individuality amidst societal pressures, quoting Emerson to emphasize the importance of inner independence.
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People still believe that Russian diplomats are particularly crafty and clever, full of artifices and stratagems, but that is not the case.
If they, situated exactly as we are, decline to join, we are not bound single-handed to make up the deficiencies of the rest.
It is a case so to speak of “limited liability.” We are bound in honour—you cannot put a legal construction upon it—to see in concert with others that these arrangements are maintained.
True merit once resigned, No trick nor feint will serve as well.
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