d tearful rapture, we look up and call it "Home."

THE ALLIES OF THE TEMPTER.

DISCOURSE VI.

THE ALLIES OF THE TEMPTER.

He that is not with me is against me.--MATTHEW xii. 30.

One of the discourses of the preceding series was devoted to a
consideration of the vices--especially the three prominent vices--of
great cities. I propose at the present time to speak of the
_Influences_, more or less direct, by which these and kindred evils are
encouraged. Vice, and moral corruption of any kind, no doubt has its
roots in the gross hearts and in the perverted appetites of men. But the
most superficial observer must see that these are nourished not merely
by their native soil, but by the social atmosphere which spreads around.
Of course character constitutes the man, and, however this may be
affected by circumstances, it enfolds the consciousness of an original
personality acting upon and through and in spite of its conditions.
Nevertheless, the ingredients of this very personality are assimilated
out of these conditions, and it is difficult to limit or define the
subtile elements that blend in the deepest currents of a man's nature.
It is, at least, a simple truism that he differs in one state of society
from what he is in another. And, therefore, among the forces which help
make up his moral condition, we must calculate the social forces. His
virtues are not all self-sustained, and his vices draw nutriment from
fine and remote channels. It would be an interesting process to analyze
our own habits and temper and cast of thought, and find how much of this
is involved with our physical relations. The air we breathe, the house
in which we dwell, the very way in which it fronts the sun, the degrees
of light and of shade that fall upon us with the flying hours, all weave
their delicate influences into the tissues of our being. And how much
that we do not suspect comes to us, day by day, in social intercourse,
in the bearing of friends, in the tone and air of conversation, in the
mere magnetism of the parlor or the street! How much to strengthen or
to weaken us; to clear or to cloud our moral atmosphere; to make us
fresh and decisive, or to slowly sap our virtue! But it is a more solemn
task to compute the influences that proceed _from_ us, and to discover
how, unknown to ourselves, we are swaying the circles of other lives.
Why, the mightiest forces go silently. You do not see the gases that
compose the vit