ties expressed by Prudence, Forethought, Circumspection,
are talked of with a like insufficient estimate of what they cost. Great
are the rewards of prudence, but great also is the expenditure of the
prudent man. To retain an abiding sense of all the possible evils, risks
and contingencies of an ordinary man's position--professional, family,
and personal--is to go about under a constant burden; the difference
between a thorough-going and an easy-going circumspection is a large
additional demand upon the forces of the brain. The being on the alert
to duck the head at every bullet is a charge to the vital powers; so
much so, that there comes a point when it is better to run risks than to
pile up costly precautions and bear worrying anxieties.

Lastly, the attribute of our active nature called Belief, Confidence,
Conviction, is subject to the same line of remark. This great
quality--the opposite of distrust and timidity, the ally of courage, the
adjunct of a buoyant temperament--is not fed upon airy nothings. It is,
indeed, a true mental quality, an offshoot of our mental nature; yet,
although not material, it is based upon certain forces of the physical
constitution; it grows when these grow, and is nourished when they are
nourished. People possessed of great confidence have it as a gift all
through life, like a broad chest or a good digestion. Preaching and
education have their fractional efficacy, and deserve to be plied,
provided the operator is aware of nature's impassable barriers, and does
not suppose that he is working by charm. It is said of Hannibal that he
dissolved obstructions in the Alps by vinegar; in the moral world,
barriers are not to be removed either by acetic acid or by honey.

* * * * *

[PREJUDICES DUE TO PERSONAL DIGNITY.]

II. The question of Free-will might be a text for discoursing on some of
the most inveterate erroneous tendencies of the mind.

For one thing, it gives occasion to remark on the influence exerted over
our opinions by the feeling of Personal Dignity. Of sources of bias,
prejudices, "Idola," "fallacies _a priori_" this may be allowed
precedence. For example, the maxim has been enunciated by some
philosophers, that, of two differing opinions, preference is to be given
(not to what is true, but) to what ennobles and dignifies human nature.
One of the objections seriously entertained against Darwin's theory is
that it humbles our ancestral pride. So,