And this high finish cannot be given to the life of any man without pure and warm conceptions of ideal excellence.

But men are capable of applying an ideal standard to other accomplishments; and these different ideals should be maintained in their just and native subordination to each other. Let no one dare to separate from all others, and worship exclusively his ideal of the beautiful, of what is for the general good, or for his own happiness and enjoyment. Neither can the ideal of the beautiful and the fit or any other be disregarded without deficiencies, which other qualities cannot supply. Our power of forming an ideal of conduct should not fix the object of our exertions,— but simply point out the manner in which that object may be most effectually secured.

We must not consider the sphere of duties assigned to us individually, as a fixed and unvarying object. One situation introduces another. Sometimes by active exertions, often by passive well-doing, we must fulfil our part. We must not fall short in the view we take of the whole extent of our obligations. Nor must we think ourselves fitted for greater things than Nature and Providence ever meant we should accomplish.

Man is not merely capable of feeling religious sentiments or performing religious acts occasionally, but his entire nature should be pervaded by religious sentiments. It was under this high and comprehensive aspect that he was addressed by the Founder of our religion - not simply as an active, or moral, or religious being, but as a subject of the "Kingdom of God."

The virtues or graces have no separate or substantial existence; they are mere exceptions formed for common use; they have in all instances a relation to action; and can only be exemplified in conduct, of which they are the prime movers. They are internal dispositions which give to the outward life its peculiar loveliness and charm and dignity; permanent expressions of sentiment and feeling with which external conduct is invested. ib.

To live nobly we must be noble - and we become noble by resolutely banishing every unworthy thought and feeling. This is as much a part of a good life as sedulously fulfilling the offices of affection. Some persons feel that devoting the whole life to family duties, is the only safe thing. They prize so highly the satisfaction of filling their ideal of life, that they are afraid to enlarge it. Those are bold who willingly narrow it.

Of

Of what is it wise to form to ourselves ideals? what we should be it is necessary, of what we would be dangerous. Castle-building is this tendency gone astray.

The Ideal of Morality has no more dangerous rival than the ideal of highest Strength, of most powerful life. It is the maximum of the Savage. Novalis.

The greater portion of the misery of this world arises from the false opinions of men whose idleness has physically incapacitated them from forming true ones. Every

duty which we omit obscures some truth which we should have known; and the guilt of a life spent in the pursuit of pleasure is twofold, partly consisting in the perversion of action, and partly in the dissemination of falsehood. Ruskin.

As it has been finely expressed, "Principle is a passion for truth." And as an earlier and homelier writer hath it, "The truths we believe in are the pillars of our world.” Bulwer.

Those bosom thoughts and projects, those cherished hopes and expectations which are the constant inhabitants of our minds, appear to me our only realities at least our interior condition is our greatest reality.

Visiting my Relations.

A man cannot hear a new Truth, relating to his soul's health and peace, convincingly uttered, or feel a movement of God's spirit within his own, and continue, in his Judge's sight, the same man that he was before. It is another talent for which God will reckon with him, a new light upon the soul, or another shade upon that wilful darkness which is the dread sin against the Holy Ghost. J. H. Thom.

One trait that is common to all of us has deprived us of many a happy hour, we are too apt to be irritated by opinions opposed to our own, and, instead of testing them,

either to reject or be persuaded into them. You may find in this an explanation of many points in my character, particularly my habit of hasty, passionate condemnation. Niebuhr.

We daily do many things from no distinct impression, but under the influence of obscure opinions which have gradually acquired strength. We often wonder why no effect is produced on ourselves or others by the most weighty arguments. We are indignant that we cannot give our full assent to advice which seems most just and useful, because we feel ourselves restrained by some obscure feeling which can be borne down by no weight of arguments. Wright.

Herder says: "The title of this treatise, 'How opinions are born and die in us,' attracted me exceedingly. This capital problem was ever in my thoughts."

The eye is continually influenced by what it cannot detect; nay, it is not going too far to say, that it is most influenced by what it detects least. Let the painter define, if he can, the variations of lines, on which depend the changes of expression in the human countenance. Ruskin.

Where the Will is strong, and Passions or Temptation moderate, where the person is engaged in outward action and little disposed to self-inspection, a man is satisfied with his own attainments, and feels no inward pressure

after a higher and higher perfection. This is often reproved as Self-Righteousness by spiritual people, unduly, I think; for the mind of the worshipper is not engaged in a reflex act of self-admiration. Moreover, in that stage of low development of the soul, a certain self-complacency is perhaps undistinguishable from that which we call a Good Conscience. Many estimable people spend the best part of their lives in this stage, without any growth of soul, perhaps exemplary in social morals, and every way amiable, with the intellectual wish to be truly religious, but with no hungering and thirsting after righteousness. They reverence God, indeed, but do not at all aspire to love Him. Natural Affection and other good feelings move them more than either the pure conscience or the Soul; Spiritually they are in a puerile stage.

To maintain a good conscience before God, and not before man only, is the first condition of all spiritual progress. But how are we to distinguish between the testimony of a good conscience, and the complacency of selfrighteousness. It may help us to investigate the subject, if we consider wherein the evil of self-righteousness consists. Sure it is that the moment we begin to admire ourselves, we are satisfied with the state of goodness already gained, and cease (for so long) to aspire after any thing higher. If so, self-righteousness is not the black and fatal mark of bad and perverse men only, but obviously besets all men at all times; and it does not consist so much in thinking highly of ourselves, as in not caring to be better, for the humblest saint becomes virtually self