The Scarlet Letter of the Reverend Mister Dimmesdale

Witnesses denied that there was any mark whatever on the minister's breast. Neither had his dying words acknowledged, nor even remotely implied any connection with guilt for which hester pryn had so long worn the scarlet letter. We must be allowed to consider this version of mister dimmesdale's story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a man's friends, and especially a clergyman's will, sometimes uphold his character. Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence, be true. Be true. If not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred.