 is capable of denying common justice, when too
strenuously demanded as a right; but quite as frequently it awards more than
justice, when the appeal is made, as despots love to have it made, entirely to
its generosity. Interpreting Hester Prynne's deportment as an appeal of this
nature, society was inclined to show its former victim a more benign countenance
than she cared to be favored with, or, perchance, than she deserved.
    The rulers, and the wise and learned men of the community, were longer in
acknowledging the influence of Hester's good qualities than the people. The
prejudices which they shared in common with the latter were fortified in
themselves by an iron framework of reasoning, that made it a far tougher labor
to expel them. Day by day, nevertheless, their sour and rigid wrinkles were
relaxing into something which, in the due course of years, might grow to be an
expression of almost benevolence. Thus it was with the men of rank, on whom
their eminent position imposed the guardianship of the public morals.
Individuals in private life, meanwhile, had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her
frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token,
not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but
of her many good deeds since. »Do you see that woman with the embroidered
badge?« they would say to strangers. »It is our Hester, - the town's own Hester,
- who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the
afflicted!« Then, it is true, the propensity of human nature to tell the very
worst of itself, when embodied in the person of another, would constrain them to
whisper the black scandal of bygone years. It was none the less a fact, however,
that, in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the
effect of the cross on a nun's bosom. It imparted to the wearer a kind of
sacredness, which enabled her to walk securely amid all peril. Had she fallen
among thieves, it would have kept her safe. It was reported, and believed by
many, that an Indian had drawn his arrow against the badge, and that the missile
struck it, but fell harmless to the ground.
    The effect of the symbol - or rather, of the position in respect to society
that was indicated by it - on the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful
and peculiar. All the light and graceful
