text:  But we in our own clear natural perceptions refuse the counsels of those who with the very breath of their warning would blight the wreath bound round the heads of the Muses' sons by a people's gratitude--who in affected zeal for religion and morality have so deeply violated the spirit of both by vile misrepresentations gross exaggerations and merciless denunciations of the frailties of our common nature in illustrious men--men who in spite of their aberrations more or less deplorable from the right path were not only in their prevailing moods devout worshippers of virtue but in the main tenor or their lives exemplary to their brethren