But if it should appear, on examination, to be at least as fallible as intellect, its greater subjective certainty becomes a demerit, making it only the more irresistibly deceptive.
In surveys and commentaries over the centuries he has generally not fared well in the popular imagination or amongst professional historians assessing the relative merits and demerits of his rule.
The young man was relieved from the awkwardness of making any further protestations of his own demerits, by an exclamation from Chingachgook, and the attitude of riveted attention assumed by his son.
" But why didn't God create a world free from suffering and misery at the beginning when there was neither merit nor demerit in the individual to determine his actions" ?
" Am I right in thinking that it means that the soul passes from body to body in an endless course of experience occasioned by the merit or demerit of previous works" ?