"Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee, and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him—who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself—the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!"
Here the pastor is kind of defending Hester in a way. He is saying that it is harder for her to keep this a secret because she has a baby to prove it. The baby's dad, doesn't have any evidence. I think she is trying to save whoever it the dad is from the punishment. You would think that the man would want to take the blame and punishment for all of it instead of have Hester go through it. (It would be the gentlemanly thing to do).
It is cowardly. Keep this blog entry in mind and refer back to it later.
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