enough
to reason out a matter; he was too hot-tempered for an argument, and he
hated those who had an acquaintance with the subject in hand, and a self-
command in connection with it that he had not. 'The obstinate man's
understanding is like Pharaoh's heart, and it is proof against all sorts
of arguments whatsoever.' Like the demented king of Egypt, the obstinate
man has glimpses sometimes both of his bounden duty and of his true
interest, but the sinew of iron that is in his neck will not let him
perform the one or pursue the other. 'Nothing,' says a penetrating
writer, 'is more like firm conviction than simple obstinacy. Plots and
parties in the state, and heresies and divisions in the church alike
proceed from it.' Let any honest man take that sentence and carry it
like a candle down into his own heart and back into his own life, and
then with the insight and honesty there learned carry the same candle
back through some of the plots and parties, the heresies and schisms of
the past as well as of the present day, and he will have learned a lesson
that will surely help to cure himself, at any rate, of his own remaining
obstinacy. All our firm convictions, as we too easily and too fondly
call them, must continually be examined and searched out in the light of
more reading of the best authors, in the light of more experience of
ourselves and of the world we live in, and in that best of all light,
that increasing purity, simplicity, and sincerity of heart alone can
kindle. And in not a few instances we shall to a certainty find that
what has hitherto been clothing itself with the honourable name and
character of a conviction was all the time only an ignorant prejudice, a
distaste or a dislike, a too great fondness for ourselves and for our own
opinion and our own interest. Many of our firmest convictions, as we now
call them, when we shall have let light enough fall upon them, we shall
be compelled and enabled to confess to be at bottom mere mulishness and
pride of heart. The mulish, obstinate, and proud man never says, I don't
know. He never asks anything to be explained to him. He never admits
that he has got any new light. He never admits having spoken or acted
wrongly. He never takes back what he has said. He was never heard to
say, You are right in that line of action, and I have all along been
wrong. Had he ever said that, the day he said it would have been a white-
stone day both for his mind and his