will find in another's success, that, "whether one
member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." But distinctively
is it so, in regard to the general progress of universal mind in
justness of thought and sentiment--those new developed master ideas
which mark the place of each successive age in the line of progression;
and in regard to which, the masters in the received sciences are quite
as often found lagging behind, as going before.

In regard to this, we are all of us individually very like the several
drops which compose the mighty current of the Mississippi, moving with
resistless force to its destination. A few may outstrip by a little
the general progress of thought, and but a little; just as one drop in
the current may receive an impulse, carrying it a little in advance;
or, if we might suppose the drops gifted with intelligence, some by
self-directed effort and seizing opportunities, might speed themselves
a little. So study and determination will enable one to anticipate by
a little the birth of ideas.

And, on the other hand, the current of thought none can resist.
Sometimes a man resolves to be so conservative, as to stick fast by the
old moorings--_he_ is not going to yield to popular impulses. But it
fares with him very much as it would with the single drop in the
Mississippi, which should resolve to stop in its place, and so reluct
against impulses and take advantage of all impediments. The result from
day to day would be, not that it had stopped in its place, or any thing
like it; but that its daily approach to the ocean was a little less
than that of its fellows.

Thus we are brought round to the same position--that the attempt to
monopolize Heaven's best gifts to man, must be a very small affair--
that the individual best consults his own attainments in knowledge,
after the sublimest sense of the term, by consulting the progress of
his neighbors and the race; just as the single drop in the Mississippi
sees its best hope of speedily reaching the ocean, in whatever gives
onward impulse to the whole current.

The thought receives force from the consideration, that here
emphatically is that knowledge, which he who increaseth beyond the
average increase, increaseth sorrow. A saying of so much currency must
have some foundation in reality. And yet is not knowledge commended to
us as one of the richest sources of enjoyment?

"Happy the mortal, who has traced effects
To their f