ns. There is observable throughout, the contest
between mechanical and spiritual methods, but with a steady tendency of
the thoughtful and virtuous to a deeper belief and reliance on spiritual
facts.

In politics for example it is easy to see the progress of dissent. The
country is full of rebellion; the country is full of kings. Hands off!
let there be no control and no interference in the administration of the
affairs of this kingdom of me. Hence the growth of the doctrine and of
the party of Free Trade, and the willingness to try that experiment, in
the face of what appear incontestable facts. I confess, the motto of
the Globe newspaper is so attractive to me that I can seldom find much
appetite to read what is below it in its columns: "The world is governed
too much." So the country is frequently affording solitary examples of
resistance to the government, solitary nullifiers, who throw themselves
on their reserved rights; nay, who have reserved all their rights; who
reply to the assessor and to the clerk of court that they do not
know the State, and embarrass the courts of law by non-juring and the
commander-in-chief of the militia by non-resistance.

The same disposition to scrutiny and dissent appeared in civil, festive,
neighborly, and domestic society. A restless, prying, conscientious
criticism broke out in unexpected quarters. Who gave me the money with
which I bought my coat? Why should professional labor and that of the
counting-house be paid so disproportionately to the labor of the porter
and woodsawyer? This whole business of Trade gives me to pause and
think, as it constitutes false relations between men; inasmuch as I am
prone to count myself relieved of any responsibility to behave well and
nobly to that person whom I pay with money; whereas if I had not that
commodity, I should be put on my good behavior in all companies, and man
would be a benefactor to man, as being himself his only certificate that
he had a right to those aids and services which each asked of the other.
Am I not too protected a person? is there not a wide disparity between
the lot of me and the lot of thee, my poor brother, my poor sister? Am
I not defrauded of my best culture in the loss of those gymnastics which
manual labor and the emergencies of poverty constitute? I find nothing
healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society; I do
not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a
prisoner, thou