now what the world is made of, and how to manage the world. These are
they of whom it is written--"He that being often reproved, hardeneth his
neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." Then they
will learn, and with a vengeance, what being confounded means by being
confounded themselves, and finding themselves utterly wrong, where they
thought themselves utterly right. Yet no. I do not think that even that
would cure some people. There are those, I verily believe, who would not
confess that they were in the wrong even in the bottomless pit, but, like
Satan and his fallen angels in Milton's poem, would have excellent
arguments to prove that they were injured and ill-used, deceived and
betrayed, and lay the blame of their misery on God, on man, on anything
but their own infallible selves.

Who, then, are the people who know what being confounded means; who are
afraid, and terribly afraid, of being brought to shame and confusion
efface?

I should say, all human beings in proportion as they are truly human
beings, are not brutal; in proportion, that is, as they are good or have
the capacity of goodness in them; that is, in proportion as the Spirit of
God is working in them, giving them the tender heart, the quick feelings,
the earnestness, the modesty, the conscientiousness, the reverence for
the good opinion of their fellow-men, which is the beginning of eternal
life. Do you not see it in the young? Modesty, bashfulness,
shame-facedness--as the good old English word was--that is the very
beginning of all goodness in boys and girls. It is the very material out
of which all other goodness is made; and those who laugh at, or torment,
young people for being modest and bashful, are doing the devil's work,
and putting themselves under the curse which God, by the mouth of Solomon
the wise, pronounced against the scorners who love scorning, and the
fools who hate knowledge.

This is the rule with dumb animals likewise. The more intelligent, the
more high-bred they are, the more they are capable of feeling shame; and
the more they are liable to be confounded, to lose their heads, and
become frantic with doubt and fear. Who that has watched dogs does not
know that the cleverer they are, the more they are capable of being
actually ashamed of themselves, as human beings are, or ought to be? Who
that has trained horses does not know that the stupid horse is never
vicious, never takes fright? The failing