e do not guess to-day the mood, the
pleasure, the power of to-morrow, when we are building up our being. Of
lower states, of acts of routine and sense, we can tell somewhat; but
the masterpieces of God, the total growths and universal movements of
the soul, he hideth; they are incalculable. I can know that truth is
divine and helpful; but how it shall help me I can have no guess, for so
to be is the sole inlet of so to know. The new position of the advancing
man has all the powers of the old, yet has them all new. It carries in
its bosom all the energies of the past, yet is itself an exhalation
of the morning. I cast away in this new moment all my once hoarded
knowledge, as vacant and vain. Now, for the first time seem I to know
any thing rightly. The simplest words,--we do not know what they mean
except when we love and aspire.

The difference between talents and character is adroitness to keep the
old and trodden round, and power and courage to make a new road to new
and better goals. Character makes an overpowering present; a cheerful,
determined hour, which fortifies all the company by making them see that
much is possible and excellent that was not thought of. Character dulls
the impression of particular events. When we see the conqueror we do not
think much of any one battle or success. We see that we had exaggerated
the difficulty. It was easy to him. The great man is not convulsible or
tormentable; events pass over him without much impression. People say
sometimes, 'See what I have overcome; see how cheerful I am; see how
completely I have triumphed over these black events.' Not if they still
remind me of the black event. True conquest is the causing the calamity
to fade and disappear as an early cloud of insignificant result in a
history so large and advancing.

The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget
ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal
memory and to do something without knowing how or why; in short to draw
a new circle. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. The
way of life is wonderful; it is by abandonment. The great moments of
history are the facilities of performance through the strength of ideas,
as the works of genius and religion. "A man," said Oliver Cromwell, "never
rises so high as when he knows not whither he is going." Dreams
and drunkenness, the use of opium and alcohol are the semblance
and counterfeit of this oracular gen