e of our moral education. It is with virtue, as it is
with literary fame. If I write well, I can scarcely feel secure that I
do so, till I obtain the suffrage of some competent judges, confirming
the verdict which I was before tempted to pronounce in my own favour.

This acting as in a theatre, where men and Gods are judges of my
conduct, is the true destination of man; and we cannot violate the
universal law under which we were born, without having reason to fear
the most injurious effects.

And is this mysterious and concealed way of proceeding one of the forms
through which we are to pass in the school of liberty? The great end of
all liberal institutions is, to make a man fearless, frank as the day,
acting from a lively and earnest impulse, which will not be restrained,
disdains all half-measures, and prompts us, as it were, to carry our
hearts in our hands, for all men to challenge, and all men to comment
on. It is true, that the devisers of liberal institutions will have
foremost in their thoughts, how men shall be secure in their personal
liberty, unrestrained in the execution of what their thoughts prompt
them to do, and uncontrolled in the administration of the fruits of
their industry. But the moral end of all is, that a man shall be worthy
of the name, erect, independent of mind, spontaneous of decision,
intrepid, overflowing with all good feelings, and open in the expression
of the sentiments they inspire. If man is double in his weightiest
purposes, full of ambiguity and concealment, and not daring to give
words to the impulses of his soul, what matters it that he is free? We
may pronounce of this man, that he is unworthy of the blessing that
has fallen to his lot, and will never produce the fruits that should be
engendered in the lap of liberty.

There is however, it should seem, a short answer to all this. It is
in vain to expatiate to us upon the mischiefs of lying, hypocrisy and
concealment, since it is only through them, as the way by which we are
to march, that nations can be made free.

This certainly is a fearful judgment awarded upon our species: but is it
true?

We are to begin, it seems, with concealing from our landlord, or our
opulent neighbour, our political determinations; and so his corrupt
influence will be broken, and the humblest individual will be safe in
doing that which his honest and unbiased feelings may prompt him to do.

No: this is not the way in which the enemy of the souls