we be not led into temptation; but not lawful to skulk from those that
come to us.

*****

To be honest, to be kind--to earn a little and to spend a little less,
to make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce
when that shall be necessary and not to be embittered, to keep a few
friends, but these without capitulation--above all, on the same grim
conditions, to keep friends with himself--here is a task for all that a
man has of fortitude and delicacy.

*****

As we dwell, we living things, in our isle of terror and under the
imminent hand of death, God forbid it should be man the erected, the
reasoner, the wise in his own eyes'--God forbid it should be man that
wearies in welldoing, that despairs of unrewarded effort, or utters
the language of complaint. Let it be enough for faith, that the whole
creation groans in mortal frailty, strives with unconquerable constancy:
surely not all in vain.

*****

I find I never weary of great churches. It is my favourite kind of
mountain scenery. Mankind was never so happily inspired as when it made
a cathedral: a thing as single and specious as a statue to the first
glance, and yet, on examination, as lively and interesting as a forest
in detail. The height of spires cannot be taken by trigonometry; they
measure absurdly short, but how tall they are to the admiring eye! And
where we have so many elegant proportions, growing one out of the other,
and all together into one, it seems as if proportion transcended itself
and became something different and more imposing. I could never fathom
how a man dares to lift up his voice to preach in a cathedral. What is
he to say that will not be an anti-climax? For though I have heard
a considerable variety of sermons, I never yet heard one that was so
expressive as a cathedral. 'Tis the best preacher itself, and preaches
day and night; not only telling you of man's art and aspirations in the
past, but convicting your own soul of ardent sympathies; or rather, like
all good preachers, it sets you preaching to yourself--and every man is
his own doctor of divinity in the last resort.

*****

As the business man comes to love the toil, which he only looked upon
at first as a ladder towards other desires and less unnatural
gratifications, so the dumb man has felt the charm of his trade and
fallen captivated before the eyes of sin. It is a mistake when preachers
tell us that vice is hideous and loathsome; for even vice