lities, are all viewed as one, with
correlative functions, and as gradually by successive combinations
converging, one and all, to the true centre.

To have even a portion of this illuminative reason and true philosophy is
the highest state to which nature can aspire, in the way of intellect; it
puts the mind above the influences of chance and necessity, above anxiety,
suspense, unsettlement, and superstition, which is the lot of the many.
Men, whose minds are possessed with some one object, take exaggerated
views of its importance, are feverish in the pursuit of it, make it the
measure of things which are utterly foreign to it, and are startled and
despond if it happens to fail them. They are ever in alarm or in
transport. Those on the other hand who have no object or principle
whatever to hold by, lose their way, every step they take. They are thrown
out, and do not know what to think or say, at every fresh juncture; they
have no view of persons, or occurrences, or facts, which come suddenly
upon them, and they hang upon the opinion of others, for want of internal
resources. But the intellect, which has been disciplined to the perfection
of its powers, which knows, and thinks while it knows, which has learned
to leaven the dense mass of facts and events with the elastic force of
reason, such an intellect cannot be partial, cannot be exclusive, cannot
be impetuous, cannot be at a loss, cannot but be patient, collected, and
majestically calm, because it discerns the end in every beginning, the
origin in every end, the law in every interruption, the limit in each
delay; because it ever knows where it stands, and how its path lies from
one point to another. It is the {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} of the Peripatetic, and has the
"nil admirari" of the Stoic,--

Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas,
Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.

There are men who, when in difficulties, originate at the moment vast
ideas or dazzling projects; who, under the influence of excitement, are
able to cast a light, almost as if from inspiration, on a subject or
course of action which comes before them; who have a sudden presence of