Error is to be pitied and pardoned: it is the weakness of human nature. But vice is a foul blemish, not pardonable in any character.
Enthusiasm is ever a gracious, pardonable thing, because in its essentials are youth and zeal and all high, white-hot qualities whose roots strike not in the base earth.
If this be not love, it is madness, and then it is pardonable.
It might be pardonable to refuse to defend some men, but to defend them negligently is nothing short of criminal.
It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised.