d a sin, an error of any kind, never have I stumbled,
never fallen, and by that very profession I pronounce myself at once
either a fool or a knave, or both.

Again, it is said, But even for the sake of helping, of doing some
service, I could not for my own sake, for character's, for reputation's
sake, I could not afford even to be seen with such a one. What would
people, what would my friends, think and say? True, apparently at least,
but, if my life, my character, has such a foundation, a foundation so
weak, so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by anything of this
kind, I had better then look well to it, and quietly, quickly, but
securely, begin to rebuild it; and, when I am sure that it is upon the
true, deep, substantial foundation, the only additional thing then
necessary is for me to reach that glorious stage of development which
quickly gets one out of the personal into the universal, or rather that
indicates that he is already out of the one and into the other, when he
can say: They think. What do they think? Let them think. They say. What
do they say? Let them say.

And, then, the supreme charity one should have, when he realizes the
fact that _the great bulk of the sin and error in the world is committed
not through choice, but through ignorance_. Not that the person does not
know many times that this or that course of action is wrong, that it is
wrong to commit this error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes in
his belief that in this course of conduct he is deriving pleasure and
happiness, and his ignorance of the fact that through a different course
of conduct he would derive a pleasure, a happiness, much keener, higher,
more satisfying and enduring.

Never should we forget that we are all the same in motive,--pleasure and
happiness: we differ only in method; and this difference in method is
solely by reason of some souls being at any particular time more fully
evolved, and thus having a greater knowledge of the great, immutable
laws under which we live, and by putting the life into more and ever
more complete harmony with these higher laws and forces, and in this way
bringing about the highest, the keenest, the most abiding pleasure and
happiness instead of seeking it on the lower planes.

While all are the same in essence, all a part of the One Infinite,
Eternal, all with the same latent possibilities, all reaching ultimately
the same place, it nevertheless is true that at any particular t