"They cannot be, sir, if they require a new statute to legalise them."

     "They are, Miss Eyre, though they absolutely require a new statute: unheard-of combinations of circumstances demand unheard-of rules."

     "That sounds a dangerous maxim, sir; because one can see at once that it is liable to abuse."

     "Sententious sage! so it is: but I swear by my household gods not to abuse it."

     "You are human and fallible."

     "I am: so are you--what then?"

     "The human and fallible should not arrogate a power with which the divine and perfect alone can be safely intrusted."

     "What power?"

     "That of saying of any strange, unsanctioned line of action,--'Let it be right.'"

     "'Let it be right'--the very words: you have pronounced them."