And
only to the sons of Wisdom, as of old to the sages of the East, seemed
given the unerring star, which, through the travail of Earth and the
clouds of Heaven, led them at the last to their God!"

"When I gleaned this fact from biography, I paused, and said, 'Then
must there be something excellent in Wisdom, if it can even in its
most imperfect disciples be thus beneficial to morality.' Pursuing this
sentiment, I redoubled my researches, and, behold, the object of
my quest was won! I had before sought a satisfactory answer to the
question, 'What is Virtue?' from men of a thousand tenets, and my heart
had rejected all I had received. 'Virtue,' said some, and my soul bowed
reverently to the dictate, 'Virtue is Religion.' I heard and humbled
myself before the Divine Book. Let me trust that I did not humble myself
in vain! But the dictate satisfied less than it awed; for either it
limited Virtue to the mere belief, or by extending it to the practice,
of Religion, it extended also the inquiry to the method in which the
practice should be applied. But with the first interpretation of the
dictate who could rest contented?--for while, in the perfect enforcement
of the tenets of our faith, all virtue may be found, so in the
passive and the mere belief in its divinity, we find only an engine as
applicable to evil as to good: the torch which should illumine the altar
has also lighted the stake, and the zeal of the persecutor has been no
less sincere than the heroism of the martyr. Rejecting, therefore, this
interpretation, I accepted the other: I felt in my heart, and I rejoiced
as I felt it, that in the practice of Religion the body of all virtue
could be found. But, in that conviction, had I at once an answer to my
inquiries? Could the mere desire of good be sufficient to attain it; and
was the attempt at virtue synonymous with success? On the contrary, have
not those most desirous of obeying the precepts of God often sinned the
most against their spirit, and has not zeal been frequently the most
ardent when crime was the most rife? [There can be no doubt that they
who exterminated the Albigenses, established the Inquisition, lighted
the fires at Smithfield, were actuated, not by a desire to do evil, but
(monstrous as it may seem) to do good; not to counteract, but to enforce
what they believed the wishes of the Almighty; so that a good intention,
without the enlightenment to direct it to a fitting object, may be as
pernicious