ssity, certain fixed characteristics, and each has its inherent
qualities or defects. Strictly speaking, then, they may be compared
among themselves: but there are always involuntary partialities or
foregone conclusions. It is better to put the question otherwise, and
ask: Is my own religion good, and how may I know it? To this question,
this answer: Your religion is good if it is vital and active, if it
nourishes in you confidence, hope, love, and a sentiment of the infinite
value of existence; if it is allied with what is best in you against
what is worst, and holds forever before you the necessity of becoming a
new man; if it makes you understand that pain is a deliverer; if it
increases your respect for the conscience of others; if it renders
forgiveness more easy, fortune less arrogant, duty more dear, the beyond
less visionary. If it does these things it is good, little matter its
name: however rudimentary it may be, when it fills this office it comes
from the true source, it binds you to man and to God.

But does it perchance serve to make you think yourself better than
others, quibble over texts, wear sour looks, domineer over others'
consciences or give your own over to bondage; stifle your scruples,
follow religious forms for fashion or gain, do good in the hope of
escaping future punishment?--oh, then, if you proclaim yourself the
follower of Buddha, Moses, Mahomet, or even Christ, your religion is
worthless--it separates you from God and man.

I have not perhaps the right to speak thus in my own name; but others
have so spoken before me who are greater than I, and notably He who
recounted to the questioning scribe the parable of the Good Samaritan. I
intrench myself behind His authority.

IV

SIMPLICITY OF SPEECH

Speech is the chief revelation of the mind, the first visible form that
it takes. As the thought, so the speech. To better one's life in the way
of simplicity, one must set a watch on his lips and his pen. Let the
word be as genuine as the thought, as artless, as valid: think justly,
speak frankly.

All social relations have their roots in mutual trust, and this trust is
maintained by each man's sincerity. Once sincerity diminishes,
confidence is weakened, society suffers, apprehension is born. This is
true in the province of both natural and spiritual interests. With
people whom we distrust, it is as difficult to do business as to search
for scientific truth, arrive at religious har