XL. It is clear, that the heroic constancy with which he supported his adherence to his religion, was not the effect of a strained violence on his nature, but proceeded from innate virtue, which acts in all things, and on all occasions, according to the habitual dispositions of the mind; for always, to the very crisis of his suffering, he preserved the native cheerfulness of his disposition. He did not appear less festive, nor less tranquil in chains, than he had before appeared in the banquet room. During the time of his trial he was all composure, and when it was drawing near a conclusion, and those iniquitous judges, who had already sacrificed their consciences to the will of their sovereign, were on the point, to please and flatter him, of delivering that innocent man, as a victim to his resentment, the barber came to shave him, and just as he was going to begin his work, Sir Thomas recollected himself, and said _Hold, as the King and I at present are contending to whom this head belongs, in case it should be adjudged to him, it would be wrong for me to rob him of the beard, so you must desist_. Being about to ascend the scaffold, and finding himself feeble, he begged one who was near to aid him in getting up the ladder, saying to him at the same time, _Assist me to get up, for be assured I shan’t trouble you to help me down again_. O eminent virtue! O spirit truly sublime, who mounted the scaffold with the same festive cheerfulness, that he would sit down to a banquet! Let men of little minds and narrow souls contemplate this example, and learn to know, that true virtue does not consist in the observance of forms and scrupulous niceties. SECT. V.