ed no Calvin, no Butler, no Goodwin, and no Law to tell him
what goes on in his own heart. And, on the other hand, his own heart
will soon tell him whether or no Calvin, and Butler, and Goodwin, and Law
know anything about those matters on which some men would set them up as
our masters. Well, come away all of you who own a human heart. Come and
say whether or no your heart, and the self-love of which it is full, have
made you a malicious man. I do not ask if you are always and to
everybody full of maliciousness. No; I know quite well that you are
sometimes as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. For, has not even
Theophilus said that whilst a man still lives among the vanities of time,
his covetousness, his envy, his pride, and his wrath may be in a
tolerable state, and may help him to a mixture of peace and trouble;
these vices may have their gratifications as well as their torments. No;
I do not trifle with you and with this serious matter so as to ask if you
are full of malice at all times and to all men. No. For, let a man be
fortunate enough to be on your side; let him pass over to your party; let
him become profitable to you; let him be clever enough and mean enough to
praise and to flatter you up to the top of your appetite for praise and
flattery, and, no doubt, you will love that man. Or, if that is not
exactly love, at least it is no longer hate. But let that man
unfortunately be led to leave your party; let him cease being profitable
to you; let him weary of flattering you with his praise; let him forget
you, neglect you, despise you, and go against you, and then look at your
own heart. Do you care now to know what malice is? Well, that is malice
that distorts and rends your heart as often as you meet that man on the
street or even pass by his door. That is malice that dances in your eyes
when you see his name in print. That is malice with which you always
break out when his name is mentioned in conversation. That is malice
that heats your heart when you suddenly recollect him in the multitude of
your thoughts within you. And you are in good company all the time. 'We,
ourselves,' says Paul to Titus, 'we also at one time lived in malice and
in envy. We were hateful and we hated one another.' 'Hateful,' Goodwin
goes on in his great book, 'every man is to another man more or less; he
is hated of another and he hateth another more or less; and if his nature
were let out to the full, there is th