ight." I suppose considerate observers, looking at the masses of
men in their blameless and in their equivocal actions, will assent, that
in spite of selfishness and frivolity, the general purpose in the great
number of persons is fidelity. The reason why any one refuses his assent
to your opinion, or his aid to your benevolent design, is in you: he
refuses to accept you as a bringer of truth, because, though you think
you have it, he feels that you have it not. You have not given him the
authentic sign.

If it were worth while to run into details this general doctrine of
the latent but ever soliciting Spirit, it would be easy to adduce
illustration in particulars of a man's equality to the Church, of his
equality to the State, and of his equality to every other man. It is
yet in all men's memory that, a few years ago, the liberal churches
complained that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of
Christian. I think the complaint was confession: a religious church
would not complain. A religious man like Behmen, Fox, or Swedenborg
is not irritated by wanting the sanction of the Church, but the Church
feels the accusation of his presence and belief.

It only needs that a just man should walk in our streets to make it
appear how pitiful and inartificial a contrivance is our legislation.
The man whose part is taken and who does not wait for society in
anything, has a power which society cannot choose but feel. The familiar
experiment called the hydrostatic paradox, in which a capillary column
of water balances the ocean, is a symbol of the relation of one man
to the whole family of men. The wise Dandamis, on hearing the lives of
Socrates, Pythagoras and Diogenes read, "judged them to be great men
every way, excepting, that they were too much subjected to the reverence
of the laws, which to second and authorize, true virtue must abate very
much of its original vigor."

And as a man is equal to the Church and equal to the State, so he
is equal to every other man. The disparities of power in men are
superficial; and all frank and searching conversation, in which a man
lays himself open to his brother, apprises each of their radical unity.
When two persons sit and converse in a thoroughly good understanding,
the remark is sure to be made, See how we have disputed about words! Let
a clear, apprehensive mind, such as every man knows among his friends,
converse with the most commanding poetic genius, I think it would app