In other cases, where he
bestowed more friendship and confidence than the object of them
especially deserved, he no doubt sought the simple pleasure of accepting
what circumstances offered him. He was not a suspicious person;
although, in fear of being fooled by his fancy, he cultivated what he
often spoke of to a friend as "morose common-sense," deeming it a
desirable alloy. There was even, in many relations, an unquestioning
trust on his part; for he might well be called
"As the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime."
The connection between Pierce and himself involved too many
considerations to make it possible to pass them with indifference; and
he perhaps condemned certain public acts of the President, while feeling
it to be utter disloyalty to an old friend to discuss these mistakes
with any one. As to other slighter connections, it is very likely he did
not take the trouble that might have saved him from being imposed upon.
But it is impossible to define Hawthorne's personality precisely. A
poet's whole effort is to indirectly express this, by expressing the
effect of things upon him; and we may read much of Hawthorne in his
books, if we have the skill. But it is very clear that he put only a
part of himself into them; that part which best served the inexorable
law of his genius for treating life in a given light. For the rest, his
two chapters on "The Custom-House" and "The Old Manse" show us something
of his mode of taking daily affairs.
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