Religion and Theologies - Religion is ground; theologies as the shadows playin it: this remains; the others pass away. To Uniformity of Opinion, and Especially ligious Opinions, Impossible, and not Desir Possible-Differences in character necessit ferences of opinion. We look upon life phenomena from different angles, with d capacities, and with ever-varying moods. multiformity of impressions thus derived i bly exclude uniformity of opinion. alike we must all have been formed alike remained forever alike, and held eterna same relations to Nature and each other cannot all sing with the same voices, with skill, and with the same modifications of but our hymns of praise and thanksgivi probably none the less acceptable to the Father, whose power, wisdom, and goodne celebrate. EPOSE without stagnation is the stat favorable to happiness. "The great of life," says Seneca, "is to be without bations." s the Over Re ble if te dif nd its Terent REPROACHES. 00 much reproach "o'erleaps itself, and falls on t' other side." Pricked up too sharply, the delinquent, like a goaded bull, grows sullen and savage, and, the persecution continuing, ends in rushing madly on the spear that wounds him. The evitathink have y the We equal tone, are Great they most licity rtur AN REPUTATION. N advantage of an achieved reputation ought to be, that of enabling one to be dull at pleasure, without fear of being set down as permanently stupid. But, however much of time, labor, or other means it takes to establish a reputation, it frequently happens that it requires nearly as much to maintain it. One who has written a good book, is expected on all occasions to "talk like a book." Or, if one has achieved an act of heroism, he is expected to perform acts of heroism for the edification of all who approach him. There are people who can never believe they see a lion unless they hear him roar. ESENTMENTS, carried too far, exp to a fate analogous to that of the fishwhen he strikes his talons too deep into beyond his capacity to lift, and is carried and drowned by it. se us nawk, a fish under rules deals h his o his ss by spec › of of irty. During this period the mind is in a state of fermentation, prone to novelties and the pursuit of Utopias, filled with speculative ideas, and presumptuously eager to have them resolved into concrete forms. After, or towards the close of this period, new conditions supervene: the blood cools; the passions subside; evils that chafed and fretted grow familiar and come to be considered as inevitable; the fervor of hope abates; we grow less sanguine; the thoughts insensibly turn from the life before to the life around us; family ties spring up; the speculative gives way to the practical; property is acquired, and along with something to conserve arises the spirit of conservatism. We have fought for our opinions, but the battle has been protracted, and we long for repose. The French Revolution The excesses of the French revolutionists doubtless contributed more to check the progress of a great cause that of civil liberty -than all the political events since combined. But, on the subject of the comparative moderation of the two great parties -republican and monarchical- of the period, listen to the testimony of Lord Holland. "The neutral as well as the belligerent powers rope," he says, "had as little pretension praise of moderation in their views, scrup their means, or humanity in their feeling the French revolutionists; and the express their principles was always as unqualified not unfrequently as coarse, vulgar, and u nerly, as that of the sansculotte demagogu Paris." S many suffer from too much as too Perhaps the strongest incentive to the a sition of wealth is the idea that as we ac fortune we acquire consideration in the w The world indeed! the world of a dozen cr and a half-dozen dependants. |