Sweet-heartedness

What ails it them though I be soft or hard? / Soft hearts would weep and weep and let men die / For very mercy and sweet-heartedness; / I that weep little for my pity’s sake, / I have the grace to save men.

Thou sayest, too, that a crime breeds evil, but therein thou dost lack experience; for out of crimes come many good things, and out of good grows much evil. The cruel rage of the tyrant may prove a blessing to thousands who come after him, and the sweet-heartedness of a holy man may make a nation slaves.

Her letter lay on the table beside him, and with it a faded, old-fashioned card photograph of Aunt Eliza, which would have signified nothing to a stranger, but in seeing which Stephen could call up vividly the arch smile, the unconscious grace, the pure sweet-heartedness which had made the little old lady so dear to him.