ins around insinuated
lakes, there would never have been a direct contradiction between the
unselfish duties and the inherent desires of every individual. But no
such contradiction exists in the system of Divine Providence; which,
leaving it open to us, if we will, as creatures in probation, to abuse
this sense like every other, and pamper it with selfish and
thoughtless vanities, as we pamper the palate with deadly meats, until
the appetite of tasteful cruelty is lost in its sickened satiety,
incapable of pleasure unless, Caligula like, it concentrates the
labour of a million of lives into the sensation of an hour,--leaves it
also open to us, by humble and loving ways, to make ourselves
susceptible of deep delight, which shall not separate us from our
fellows, nor require the sacrifice of any duty or occupation, but
which shall bind us closer to men and to God, and be with us always,
harmonized with every action, consistent with every claim, unchanging
and eternal.

[1] The reader must observe, that having been thoroughly disciplined in
the Evangelical schools, I supposed myself, at four-and-twenty, to know
all about the ordinances of the Almighty. Nevertheless, the practical
contents of the sentence are good; if only they are intelligible, which
I doubt.

5. A great Idealist never can be egotistic. The whole of his power
depends upon his losing sight and feeling of his own existence, and
becoming a mere witness and mirror of truth, and a scribe of
visions,--always passive in sight, passive in utterance, lamenting
continually that he cannot completely reflect nor clearly utter all he
has seen,--not by any means a proud state for a man to be in. But the
man who has no invention is always setting things in order,[2] and
putting the world to rights, and mending, and beautifying, and pluming
himself on his doings, as supreme in all ways.

[2] I am now a comic illustration of this sentence, myself. I have not a
ray of invention in all my brains; but am intensely rational and
orderly, and have resolutely begun to set the world to rights.

6. So far as education does indeed tend to make the senses delicate,
and the perceptions accurate, and thus enables people to be pleased
with quiet instead of gaudy colour, and with graceful instead of
coarse form; and by long acquaintance with the best things, to discern
quickly what is fine from what is common--so far acquired taste is an
honourable faculty, and it is true praise