Though either actually congregated or congregating around him, and within free and easy hearing of his voice, now stretched to its utmost, the party were quite too busily employed in the discussion of the events—­too much immersed in the sudden stupor which followed, in nearly all minds, their termination—­to know or care much what were the hard words which our young traveller bestowed upon the detected outlaw.  They had all of them (their immediate leaders excepted) been hurried on, as is perfectly natural and not unfrequently the case, by the rapid succession of incidents (which in their progress of excitement gave them no time for reflection), from one act to another; without perceiving, in a single pause, the several gradations by which they insensibly passed on from crime to crime;—­and it was only now, and in a survey of the several foot-prints in their progress, that they were enabled to perceive the vast and perilous leaps which they had taken.  As in the ascent of the elevation, step by step, we can judge imperfectly of its height, until from the very summit we look down upon our place of starting, so with the wretched outcasts of society of whom we speak.  Flushed with varying excitements, they had deputed the task of reflection to another and a calmer time; and with the reins of sober reason relaxed, whirled on by their passions, they lost all control over their own impetuous progress, until brought up and checked, as we have seen, by a catastrophe the most ruinous—­the return of reason being the signal for the rousing up of those lurking furies—­terror, remorse, and many and maddening regrets.  From little to large events, we experience or behold this every day.  It is a history and all read it.  It belongs to human nature and to society:  and until some process shall be discovered by which men shall be compelled to think by rule and under regulation, as in a penitentiary their bodies are required to work, we despair of having much improvement in the general condition of human affairs.  The ignorant and uneducated man is quite too willing to depute to others the task of thinking for him and furnishing his opinions.  The great mass are gregarious, and whether a lion or a log is chosen for their guidance, it is still the same—­they will follow the leader, if regularly recognised as such, even though he be an ass.  As if conscious of their own incapacities, whether these arise from deficiencies of education or denials of birth, they forego the only habit—­that of self-examination—­which alone can supply the deficiency; and with a blind determination, are willing, on any terms, to divest themselves of the difficulties and responsibilities of their own government.  They crown others with all command, and binding their hands with cords, place themselves at the disposal of those, who, in many cases, not satisfied with thus much, must have them hookwinked also.  To this they also consent, taking care, in their great desire to be slaves, to be foremost themselves in tying on the bandage which keeps them in darkness and in chains for ever.  Thus will they be content to live, however wronged, if not absolutely bruised and beaten; happy to escape from the cares of an independent mastery of their own conduct, if, in this way, they can also escape from the noble responsibilities of independence.