power. And if man be
thought-creative, he can as well as God give being unto what was
non-existent, and that, too, not mere gross, perishable matter, but
immortal soul; for thought is mind, and mind is spirit, soul, undying,
immortal. Grant that, and you divide God's empire, and enthrone the
creature in equal sovereignty beside his Maker.

All thought, then, belongs exclusively to God, and is parceled out by
him, as he chooses, among his creature feudatories. As the wind, which
bloweth where it listeth, and no one knoweth whence it cometh, save that
it is sent by God, so is thought, as it blows through our minds. Over
birds, flying at liberty through the free air, boys often advance claims
of ownership more specific than are easily derived from the general
dominion God gave man over the beasts of the field and the birds of the
air; yet, 'All those birds are mine!' exclaims a youngster in
roundabout, with just as much reason as any man can claim, as
exclusively his own, the thoughts which are ever winging their way
through the firmament of mind.

But considered apart from the relation we sustain to God, none of us are
original with respect to our fellow-men. Few, indeed, are the ideas we
derive by direct grant, or through nature, from our liege lord; but far
the greater share, by hooks or personal contact, we gather through our
fellow-men. Consciously, unconsciously, we all teach--we all learn from,
one another. Association does far more toward forming mind than natural
endowments. As not alone the soil whence it springs makes the oak, but
surrounding elements contribute. Seclude a human mind entirely from
hooks and men, and you may have a man with no ideas borrowed from his
fellows. Such a one, in Germany, once grew up from childhood to manhood
in close imprisonment, and poor Kasper Hauser proved--an idiot. It can
hardly be necessary to suggest the well-known fact, that the greatest
readers of men and books always possess the greatest minds. Such are,
besides, of the greatest service to mankind. For since God has so formed
us that we love to give as well as take, a great independent mind,
complete in itself and incapable of receiving from others, must always
stand somewhat apart from men; and even a great heart, when
conjoined--as it seldom is--with a great head, is rarely able to
drawbridge over the wide moat which intrenches it in solitary
loneliness. Originality ever links with it something of
uncongeniality--a fe