the Bench, and never interposes an adamantine syllable; and the
most sincere and revolutionary doctrine, put as if the ark of God were
carried forward some furlongs, and planted there for the succor of the
world, shall in a few weeks be coldly set aside by the same speaker,
as morbid; "I thought I was right, but I was not,"--and the same
immeasurable credulity demanded for new audacities. If we were not of
all opinions! if we did not in any moment shift the platform on which
we stand, and look and speak from another! if there could be any
regulation, any 'one-hour-rule,' that a man should never leave his
point of view without sound of trumpet. I am always insincere, as always
knowing there are other moods.
How sincere and confidential we can be, saying all that lies in
the mind, and yet go away feeling that all is yet unsaid, from the
incapacity of the parties to know each other, although they use the same
words! My companion assumes to know my mood and habit of thought, and we
go on from explanation to explanation until all is said which words can,
and we leave matters just as they were at first, because of that vicious
assumption. Is it that every man believes every other to be an incurable
partialist, and himself a universalist? I talked yesterday with a pair
of philosophers; I endeavored to show my good men that I love everything
by turns and nothing long; that I loved the centre, but doated on the
superficies; that I loved man, if men seemed to me mice and rats; that
I revered saints, but woke up glad that the old pagan world stood its
ground and died hard; that I was glad of men of every gift and nobility,
but would not live in their arms. Could they but once understand that
I loved to know that they existed, and heartily wished them God-speed,
yet, out of my poverty of life and thought, had no word or welcome for
them when they came to see me, and could well consent to their living in
Oregon, for any claim I felt on them,--it would be a great satisfaction.
*****
NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS.
In the suburb, in the town,
On the railway, in the square,
Came a beam of goodness down
Doubling daylight everywhere:
Peace now each for malice takes,
Beauty for his sinful weeks,
For the angel Hope aye makes
Him an angel whom she leads.
NEW ENGLAND REFORMERS.
A LECTURE READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY IN AMORY HALL, ON SUNDAY, MARCH 3,
1844.
WHOEVER has had opportuni
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