ingdoms and states from virtue and God's true
worship. Lastly, whatsoever in religion is holy and sublime, and in
virtue amiable or grave; whatsoever hath passion, or admiration in all
the changes of that which is called fortune from without, or the wily
subtleties and reflections of men's thoughts from within; all these
things, with a solid and treatable smoothness, to paint out and
describe--Teaching over the whole book of morality and virtue, through
all instances of example, with such delight to those, especially of soft
and delicious temper, who will not so much as look upon Truth herself
unless they see her elegantly dressed; that, whereas the paths of
honesty and good life that appear now rugged and difficult, appear to
all men easy and pleasant, though they were rugged and difficult
indeed."

It is not easy to believe that no great broad lights have been thrown on
the mysteries of men's minds since the days of the great poets,
moralists, and metaphysicians of the ancient world. We seem to feel more
profoundly than they--to see, as it were, into a new world. The things
of that world are of such surpassing worth, that in certain awe-struck
moods we regard them as almost above the province of Poetry. Since the
revelation of Christianity, all moral thought has been sanctified by
Religion. Religion has given it a purity, a solemnity, a sublimity,
which, even among the noblest of the heathen, we shall look for in vain.
The knowledge that shone but by fits and dimly on the eyes of Socrates
and Plato, "that rolled in vain to find the light," has descended over
many lands into "the huts where poor men lie"--and thoughts are familiar
there, beneath the low and smoky roofs, higher far than ever flowed from
the lips of Grecian sage meditating among the magnificence of his
pillared temples. The whole condition and character of the Human Being,
in Christian countries, has been raised up to a loftier elevation; and
he may be looked at in the face without a sense of degradation, even
when he wears the aspect of poverty and distress. Since that Religion
was given us, and not before, has been felt the meaning of that sublime
expression--The Brotherhood of Man.

Yet it is just as true that there is as much misery and suffering in
Christendom--nay, far more of them all--than troubled and tore men's
hearts during the reign of all those superstitions and idolatries. But
with what different feelings is it all thought of--spoken of--l