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upon this text, we should never have another little boy supposing he was to be a clergyman, because he went out shooting with his father. Would that such could be persuaded to leave their partridges and pheasants, and go east and west, to bring down and send home the winged creatures of other climes, wherewith to delight the eyes of the ignorant, and to enlarge his knowledge of God's works! Meantime, the well-dressed only can enter the zoological gardens: and the footman (who cannot be otherwise than well-dressed) must pull of his cockade before he may look at that which may open to him some of the glory of the 104th psalm. We are lavish of God's word to the people, but grudging of his works. We offer them the dead letter, with-holding the spirit which gives life.-Miss Martineau.

389. The Stoics taught that happiness was only to be found in the practice of virtue. They denied that health, reputation, and riches were, properly speaking, good; and they contended that poverty, ignominy, and pain were not evils. "Virtue alone," said their founder, "is sufficient to happiness; and the wise man may enjoy it at all times, be his condition what it may."

Zeno is said to have died at the age of ninety eight years, having never experienced any sickness or indisposition whatever.-Had Zeno been the victim of pain, reproach, and poverty, would he have taught that these things were not evils?—The Savage.

390.

The Church. But to speak the truth, we must acknowledge that the church, (if a convention of clergymen, making canons, must be called by that name,) is for the most part more apt to be influenced by the court, than the court by the church. How the church was, under the vicissitude of orthodox and Arian Emperors is very well known. Or if those things be too remote, our modern english history affords us fresher examples, in the reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. Mary, and Elizabeth-how easily and smoothly the clergy changed their decrees, their articles of faith, their form of worship, every thing, according to the inclination of the Kings and Queens of such different minds in point of religion, and enjoined thereupon such different things, that no man in his wits, (I had almost said, none but an atheist,) will presume to say that any sincere and upright worshipper of God, could, with a safe conscience, obey their several decrees.-Locke.

391. A man of sound judgment is not diverted from the truth by the strength of immediate impression. He decides with unbiassed impartiality, never suffering any passion to interfere with the love of truth. He does not form a hasty opinion. He is not tenacious in retaining an opinion when formed: "he is never ashamed of being wiser to day than he was yesterday:" He never wanders from the substance of the matter in judgment into useless subtlety and refinement.-Basil Montagu.

392. Inefficacy of restraints on the publication of Opinions.-Even if restraints partially succeed in their object, they will only retard the consummation which they cannot prevent; they will only detain the community longer amidst that struggle of truth and falsehood which must inevitably take place. Since there is a sort of regular process which must be gone through-a course of doubts, and difficulties, and objections, before any disputable truth can be firmly settled in the minds of thinking men the sooner this is accomplished the better; the sooner the objections and their answers, the difficulties and their solutions, are put on record, the greater the number of people who will be saved from uncertainty, and from the trouble of winding through all the intricacies of the dispute. The interference of power cannot obviate this necessity nor can it prevent the operation of those general causes which are constantly at work on the understandings of men, and produce certain opinions in certain states of society and stages of civilization. The utmost, then, that authority can do, is to retard the action of these general causes, to prolong the period of hesitation and uncertainty, and to disturb the natural progress of human improvement. It even sometimes happens (as we have already had occasion to notice,) that restrictive measures defeat their own object, and accelerate the event they are intended to arrest or counteract. The mere attempt to suppress a doctrine has often been found to disseminate it more widely. There is a charm in secrecy which often attracts the public mind to proscribed opinions. The curiosity roused by their being prohibited, a repugnance to oppression, an undefined suspicion or tacit inference that what requires the arm of power to suppress it must have some strong claims to credence, and various other circumstances, draw the attention of numbers, in whose eyes the matter in controversy, had it been freely discussed, would have been totally destitute of interest. Whatever is the severity of the law, some bold spirit every now and then sets it at defiance, and by so doing spreads obnoxious doctrine far more rapidly than it would have diffused itself had it been left unmolested.

In proportion to the inefficacy of restraints on the publication of opinions, the objections which we have brought against them would, of course be weakened or removed. If they did not succeed in their object, they would be no impediment to the progress of truth; but although they should be ultimately ineffectual, they would still beget positive evils by disturbing the natural course of improvement. In a country or community where no such restraints existed, it is obvious that no changes of opinion could well be sudden. Truth, at the best, makes but slow advances. Its light is at first confined to men of high station, learning, and abilities, and gradually spreads down to the other classes of society. The reluctance of the human mind to receive ideas contrary to its usual habits of thinking would be a sufficient security from violent transitions, did we not already possess another in the slowness with which the understanding makes its discoveries. Arguments by which prescriptive error is overturned, however plain and forcible

they may be, are found out with difficulty, and, in the first instance, can be entered into only by enlarged and liberal minds, by whom they are subsequently familiarized and disseminated to others.

Now all restraints on the free examination of any subject are an interference with the natural and regular process here described, and produce mischievous irregularities. The gradual progress of opinion cannot be stopped, but is interrupted. We no longer find it so insensibly progressive that we can hardly mark the change but by comparing two distant periods. Under a system of restraint and coercion we see apparently sudden revolutions in public sentiment. Opinions are cherished and spread in the secresy of fear, till the ardour with which they are entertained can no longer be repressed, and bursts forth in outrage and disorder. The passions become exasperated; the natural sense of injustice, which men will deeply feel as long as the world lasts, at the proscription or persecution of opinions, is roused into action, and a zeal is kindled for the propagation of doctrines, endeared to the heart by obloquy and suffering.

Such ebullitions are to be feared only where the natural operation of inquiry has been obstructed. As in the physical so in the moral world, it is repression which produces violence. Public opinion resembles the vapour, which in the open air is as harmless as the breeze, but which may be compressed into an element of tremendous power. When novel doctrines are kept down by force, they naturally resort to force to free themselves from restraints. Their advocates would seldom pursue violent measures, if such measures had not been first directed against them. What partly contributes to this violence is the effect produced by restraint on the moral qualities of men's minds. Compulsory silence, the necessity of confining to his own breast ardently cherished opinions, can never have a good influence on the character of any one. It has a tendency to make men morose and hypocritical, discontented and designing, and ready to risk much in order to rid themselves of their trammels; while the liberty of uttering opinions, without obloquy and punishment, promotes satisfaction of mind and sincerity of conduct.—Bailey's Essays.

393. Education.-Accustom a child as soon as it can speak, to narrate his little experiences, his chapter of accidents; his griefs, his fears, his hopes to communicate what he has noticed in the world without, and what he feels struggling in the world within. Anxious to have something to narrate, he will be induced to give attention to objects around him, and what is passing in the sphere of his instruction, and to observe and note events, will become one of his first pleasures : and this is the groundwork of a thoughtful character.-Educational Magazine for October, 1835.

394. Truth. The greatest friend of Truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility. C. C. Colton.

395. Punishment of Fanaticism.-Painful and corporal punishments should never be applied to fanaticism; for, being founded on pride, it glories in persecution. Infamy and ridicule only should be employed against fanatics: if the first, their pride will be overbalanced by the pride of the people; and we may judge of the power of the second, if we consider that even truth is obliged to summon all her force when attacked by error armed by ridicule. Thus by opposing one passion to another, and opinion to opinion, a wise legislator puts an end to the admiration of the populace, occasioned by a false principle, the original absurdity of which is veiled by some well-educated consequences.

This is the method to avoid confounding the immutable relations of things, or opposing nature; whose actions not being limited by time, but operating incessantly, overturn and destroy all those vain regulations which contradict her laws. It is not only in the fine arts that the intimation of nature is the fundamental principle; it is the same in sound policy, which is no other than the art of uniting and directing to the same end the natural and immutable sentiments of mankind.— Beccaria.

396. Modes of generating the love of excelling.—If children are intended for holy orders, we set before them some eminent orator, whose fine preaching has made him the admiration of the age, and carried him through all the dignities and preferments of the church. We encourage them to have these honours in their eye, and to expect the reward of their studies from them.—If the youth is intended for a trade, we bid him look at all the rich men of the same trade, and consider how many now are carried about in their stately coaches, who began in the same low degree as he now does. We awaken his ambition, and endeavour to give his mind a right turn, by often telling him how very rich such and such a tradesman died.—If he is to be a lawyer, then we set great counsellors, lords, judges, chancellors, before his eyes. We tell him what great fees, and great applause attend fine pleading. We exhort him to take fire at these things, to raise a spirit of emulation in himself, and to be content with nothing less than the highest honours of the long robe.-Montagu.

397. Vulgar Minds.-They attempt to acquire factitious importance by an impudent assumption of familiarity with noble spirits. Genuine politeness is the first-born offspring of generosity and modesty :-unauthorized freedoms are the trespasses of impudence on condescension. J. P. Ellidge.

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398. Respect paid to the Aged by the Lacedemonians.—There was a custom among the Lacedemonians dictated by nature, and approved of by morality, which more polished nations have admired, but never imitated. I allude to the respect paid by the Spartans to age. Neither wealth nor titles were esteemed at Lacedemon; and therefore all the affections and propensities of men flowed in their natural channels. Age was venerated, and therefore youth was tractable. Experience was consulted, and therefore wisdom was practised. The aged and infirm were respected, and therefore the young and the middle-aged, looked forward with satisfaction, and without fear, to the decline of years. To give one hour of comfort to the pale victim of adversity, and to cheer with one transient gleam of joy, the evening of life, ought surely to be among the pleasures, as they are among the duties of humanity.

Sir W. Drummond.

399. The abolition of Gold and Silver in Sparta.—The second establishment made by Lycurgus, says Plutarch, was the division of the lands, and the abolition of gold and silver. This bold undertaking, adds the biographer, was made in order to banish fraud, envy, and luxury, and those two ancient plagues of society, poverty, and avarice, and in order likewise that honour should be rendered only to virtue.

When we come to examine under a moral point of view, the benefits which mankind have received from the use of the precious metals, we shall not perhaps condemn the step taken by Lycurgus upon this occasion. If money has contributed to the comfort of mankind by facilitating their commercial intercourse with each other; and if it has rendered the arts and sciences more flourishing, not only by exciting invention, and by rewarding industry, but by dividing into innumerable branches the pursuits and occupations of men; it has also given birth to some of the most violent of those passions which distract and agitate the soul, and

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