This is
that quick-sighted penetration whose hawk's eyes no symptom of evil
can escape; which observes not only upon the actions, but upon the
words and looks, of men; and, as it proceeds from the heart of the
observer, so it dives into the heart of the observed, and there espies
evil, as it were, in the first embryo; nay, sometimes before it can be
said to be conceived. An admirable faculty, if it were infallible;
but, as this degree of perfection is not even claimed by more than one
mortal being; so from the fallibility of such acute discernment have
arisen many sad mischiefs and most grievous heart-aches to innocence
and virtue. I cannot help, therefore, regarding this vast
quick-sightedness into evil as a vicious excess, and as a very
pernicious evil in itself. And I am the more inclined to this opinion,
as I am afraid it always proceeds from a bad heart, for the reasons
I have above mentioned, and for one more, namely, because I never knew
it the property of a good one. Now, from this degree of suspicion I
entirely and absolutely acquit Sophia.
A second degree of this quality seems to arise from the head. This
is, indeed, no other than the faculty of seeing what is before your
eyes, and of drawing conclusions from what you see. The former of
these is unavoidable by those who have any eyes, and the latter is
perhaps no less certain and necessary a consequence of our having
any brains. This is altogether as bitter an enemy to guilt as the
former is to innocence: nor can I see it in an unamiable light, even
though, through human fallibility, it should be sometimes mistaken.
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