8. It is wondrous how the truer we become, the more unerringly we know the ring of truth, discern whether a man be true or not, and can fasten at once upon the rising lie in word and look and dissembling act. 9. The intellect, in becoming a pander to vice, a tool of the passions, an advocate of lies, becomes not only degraded but diseased. It loses the capacity of distinguishing truth from falsehood, good from evil, right from wrong. 10. No man knows the horror of thick darkness which gathers over the slaves of vehement passion, like him who is rising into the light and liberty of virtue. THE BLINDING POWER OF VICE 11. There is indeed a selfish shrewdness, which is thought to give a peculiar and deep insight into human nature; but the knowledge of which it boasts is partial, distorted, and vulgar. 12. No qualification avails so much to a knowledge of human nature, in its good and evil manifestations, as an enlightened charity, for this establishes sympathies between us and all men, and thus makes them intelligible to us. 13. A man imbued with this spirit alone contemplates vice as it really exists, and as it ought always to be described. 14. But when we in our viciousness grow hard, the wise gods seal our eyes In our own filth; drop our clear judgments ; make us Adore our errors; laugh at us while we strut The Integrity of the Upright shall Guide Them 145 15. When our worth declines, our taste also declines. 16. Depravity distorts the moral vision, and causes it to be deceived on the subject of moral principles; so that it is clearly impossible for a person who is not good to be prudent in the best sense. DUTY AND 17. Let him who gropes painfully in darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently that the dawn may ripen into day, lay this precept well to heart: "Do the duty which lies nearest thee, which thou knowest to be a duty! Thy second duty will already have become clearer." INSIGHT 18. Whoever desires that his intellect may grow up to healthy vigour, must begin with moral discipline. 19. The subtlest reasoners, for want of this, cheat themselves as well as others, and become entangled in the web of their own sophistry. 20. Our subtlest analysis of schools and sects must miss the essential truth, unless it be lit up by the love that sees in all forms of human thought and work, the life-and-death struggles of separate human beings. 21. There is a great difference between the wisdom of an illuminated and devout man, and the knowledge of a learned and studious clerk. CHARACTER AND INTELLECT 22. We only know so far as we can do; we learn to do by doing, and we learn to know by doing. 23. Every duty we omit obscures some truth we should have known. 24. No one can have a true idea of right until he does it; any genuine reverence for it until he has done it often and with cost; any peace ineffable in it, till he does it always and with alacrity. K 25. Does any one complain that the best affections are transient visitors with him, and the heavenly spirit a stranger to his heart? 26. Oh, let him not go forth on any strained wing of thought, in distant quest of them, but rather stay at home and set his house in the true order of conscience. 27. Of noise alone is born the inward sense 28. The more a man is united within himself, and becometh inwardly simple and pure, so much the more and higher things doth he understand without labour. 29. If thou wert inwardly good and pure, then wouldst thou be able to see and understand things well without impediment 30. We cannot really know the truth unless we love it. They who love well will know well. 31. He who loves much, and abides humbly and lowly in his ignorance, is the beloved of Truth; he knows that which wise men are ignorant of, and do not even care to know. 32. The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way; but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness. 33. So dear to heaven is saintly chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear. THE REWARD OF A THING WELL DONE IS TO HAVE DONE IT 1. Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them? that it was a vain endeavour ? 2. In truth, in our heart of hearts, we want VIRTUE AN END IN ITSELF to do, we want to dare; we do not care even to be assured of victory; there is a profound something in us which disdains the need of such assurances. 3. The hero fears not that if he withhold the avowal of a just and brave act, it will go unwitnessed and unloved. One knows it-himself-and is pledged by it to sweetness of peace, and to nobleness of aim. 4. Make not the consequence of virtue the ends thereof. To have other by-ends in good actions sours laudable performances. 5. When thou hast done a good act and another has received it, why dost thou still look for a third thing besides these, as fools do, either to have the reputation of having done a good act or to obtain a return? 6. When thou blamest a man as faithless or ungrateful to thee, turn to thyself. For the fault is manifestly thine own, when, in conferring thy kindness, thou didst not confer it absolutely, nor yet in such a way as to have received from the very act all the profit. 7. What is thy art? To be good. Have I done something for the general interest? Well then, I have had my reward. 8. As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when he has made the honey, so a man when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season. [LOOK NOT TO BE PAID 9. What more dost thou want when thou hast done a man a service? Art thou not content that thou hast done something conformable to thy nature, and dost thou seek to be paid for it, just as if the eye demanded a recompense for seeing, or the feet for walking? 10. Thy purpose, firm, is equal to the deed: Who does the best his circumstance allows, 11. "My strength is but a man's; Beyond man's strength the goal; The fear exceeding great, What use to totter on A step or two and fall ?” 12. Thou knowest nought, O man! Run thou thy race. And in the running find both strength and joy. 13. But what if I fail in my purpose here ?— |