dmires the man of energy
and tactics; the merchant breeds his son for the church or the bar; and
where a man is not vain and egotistic you shall find what he has not
by his praise. Moreover it would be hardly honest in me not to balance
these fine lyric words of Love and Friendship with words of coarser
sound, and whilst my debt to my senses is real and constant, not to own
it in passing.

Prudence is the virtue of the senses. It is the science of appearances.
It is the outmost action of the inward life. It is God taking thought
for oxen. It moves matter after the laws of matter. It is content to
seek health of body by complying with physical conditions, and health of
mind by the laws of the intellect.

The world of the senses is a world of shows; it does not exist for
itself, but has a symbolic character; and a true prudence or law of
shows recognizes the co-presence of other laws and knows that its own
office is subaltern; knows that it is surface and not centre where it
works. Prudence is false when detached. It is legitimate when it is the
Natural History of the soul incarnate, when it unfolds the beauty of
laws within the narrow scope of the senses.

There are all degrees of proficiency in knowledge of the world. It is
sufficient to our present purpose to indicate three. One class live to
the utility of the symbol, esteeming health and wealth a final good.
Another class live above this mark to the beauty of the symbol, as the
poet and artist and the naturalist and man of science. A third
class live above the beauty of the symbol to the beauty of the thing
signified; these are wise men. The first class have common sense; the
second, taste; and the third, spiritual perception. Once in a long time,
a man traverses the whole scale, and sees and enjoys the symbol solidly,
then also has a clear eye for its beauty, and lastly, whilst he pitches
his tent on this sacred volcanic isle of nature, does not offer to build
houses and barns thereon,--reverencing the splendor of the God which he
sees bursting through each chink and cranny.

The world is filled with the proverbs and acts and winkings of a base
prudence, which is a devotion to matter, as if we possessed no other
faculties than the palate, the nose, the touch, the eye and ear; a
prudence which adores the Rule of Three, which never subscribes, which
never gives, which seldom lends, and asks but one question of any
project,--Will it bake bread? This is a disease li