o
change their minds, but immediately pulled a pair of shears out of his
sleeve, and performed the operation with his own hand." A canon is still
extant, of the date of 1096, importing that such as wore long hair
should be excluded from the church whilst living, or being prayed for
when dead. Now, the very curates rejoice in ringlets and macassar. It
would be curious to trace the heresy to its complete triumph in
full-bottomed wigs, in which, it was ignorantly supposed, wisdom finally
settled, when it was not discovered elsewhere. Thus it is, Eusebius,
that folly, the vile insect, flies about--just drops a few eggs in the
very nest of conscience, and is off, and a corruption of the flesh
followeth. Those, therefore, who take out license to shoot folly as it
flies, should be made to look after the eggs likewise.

Alas, Eusebius, that any thing should take the name of this nice sense
that is not replete with goodness, that is not the true _ductor
substantium_! The prophet of an evil which wounds his very soul will
take offence if it come not to pass and spare not. Was not Jonah grieved
that the whole city was not destroyed as he had said? That nice and
inner sense was more ingenious on the side of bold justice, than
prodigal to mercy; and so had he not "a conscience void of offence;"
and thus this honourable feeling not always acts unfettered, but is
intercepted and hurried on, spite of itself, into courses of action in
which there is too much of passion, and, plunging into error with this
outward violence, is forced upon ingenious defences. The story of Piso
is in point. He thought to act the conscientious judge, when he
condemned the soldier to death who had returned from forage without his
companion, under the impression that he had killed him; but as he is
upon the point of execution, the man supposed to have been murdered
returns, all the soldiery present rejoice, and the executioner brings
them both to the presence of Piso. And what did the conscientious Piso?
His conscience would not so let him put by justice; so, with a
surprising ingenuity of that nice faculty in its delirium, he orders
execution upon all three--the first soldier, because he had been
condemned--the second, who had lost his way, because he was the cause of
his companion's death--and the executioner, because he had disobeyed his
orders. He had but to pretend to be greatly grieved at his vagary, to
have the act lauded as an instance of Roman virtue.