refore, when we find a soul which was born
to a full sense of individual liberty, an unchallenged right of
self-determination on every new alleged truth offered to its
intelligence, voluntarily surrendering any portion of its liberty to a
spiritual dictatorship which always proves to rest, in the last analysis,
on a majority vote, nothing more nor less, commonly an old one, passed in
those barbarous times when men cursed and murdered each other for
differences of opinion, and of course were not in a condition to settle
the beliefs of a comparatively civilized community.

In our disgust, we are liable to be intolerant. We forget that weakness
is not in itself a sin. We forget that even cowardice may call for our
most lenient judgment, if it spring from innate infirmity, Who of us does
not look with great tenderness on the young chieftain in the "Fair Maid
of Perth," when he confesses his want of courage? All of us love
companionship and sympathy; some of us may love them too much. All of us
are more or less imaginative in our theology.

Some of us may find the aid of material symbols a comfort, if not a
necessity. The boldest thinker may have his moments of languor and
discouragement, when he feels as if he could willingly exchange faiths
with the old beldame crossing herself at the cathedral-door,--nay, that,
if he could drop all coherent thought, and lie in the flowery meadow with
the brown-eyed solemnly unthinking cattle, looking up to the sky, and all
their simple consciousness staining itself blue, then down to the grass,
and life turning to a mere greenness, blended with confused scents of
herbs,--no individual mind-movement such as men are teased with, but the
great calm cattle-sense of all time and all places that know the milky
smell of herds,--if he could be like these, he would be content to be
driven home by the cow-boy, and share the grassy banquet of the king of
ancient Babylon. Let us be very generous, then, in our judgment of those
who leave the front ranks of thought for the company of the meek
non-combatants who follow with the baggage and provisions. Age, illness,
too much wear and tear, a half-formed paralysis, may bring any of us to
this pass. But while we can think and maintain the rights of our own
individuality against every human combination, let us not forget to
caution all who are disposed to waver that there is a cowardice which is
criminal, and a longing for rest which it is baseness