desert, the air, the ocean, all teeming with creatures whose bodily wants are as carefully provided for as his; the sun, the clouds, the winds, all attending, as it were, on these organized beings; a host of beneficent energies, unwearied by time and succession, pervading every corner of the earth; this spectacle cannot but give the contemplator a lofty and magnificent conception of the Author of so vast a work, of the Ruler of so wide and rich an empire, of the Provider for so many and varied wants, the Director and Adjuster of such complex and jarring interests. Whewell. 1. THERE are a number of proverbial notions, which either square so well with some principle in our self-love, or appeal so forcibly to some of our besetting prejudices, or appear from some other cause so exceedingly plausible, that they are never brought forward without apparently producing conviction, while in sober truth they are either highly questionable or decidedly erroneous. 2. When a man, for instance, says, 66 Away with all refinements - I take the broad common-sense view of the question," everybody immediately prepares to listen to him as a kind of ora cle. He may, after that, speak for half an hour in the most vulgar and irrational jargon, without a single reference to the principle of the argument; and if he only takes care not to offend any of the prepossessions of his hearers, he will bear away the palm from the most acute reasoner. 3. The cause of this is, that when you speak of common sense you speak of a thing which all imperfectly-educated and ignorant people (unfortunately the great majority of common audiences) think they possess by intuition, though it is in reality but a composition of the prejudices of each particular person; and, flattered by their sense being considered as sufficient to give judgment, they are tempted into thinking themselves convinced, and pronounce accordingly. 4. Whenever a man happens to act rather absurdly, or perhaps somewhat reprehensibly, and is conscious of it, you are sure to hear him exclaim, "Well, I acted according to my conscience." If a man can only convince himself that he was ruled by this secret monitor, he is satisfied, because he has always been told to act according to conscience, and invariably hears conscientious people commended both by friends and oppo'nents. Other people are satisfied too, and think no more "O, he acted of the error they were once disposed to censure. according to his conscience; there is no more to be said." 5. Now, this would be all very well if conscience were one uniform prompter of good, and preventive of bad, in the breasts of all men. But conscience is a quality which every man possesses only in a certain extent, in proportion as he may have been originally gifted with it, and as he may have cultivated it through life. An individual may have a conscience so very small, or so very dull, that it forms no obstacle to the worst indulgences: he may be so very stupid, in regard to all specu lative questions, that the conscience he thinks he acts upon is only a blind supposition of the truth. 6. In these cases conscience is no excuse. The most flagitious criminal might make it a plea for arrest of judgment; the most unenlightened of human beings might sit down upon it in selfsatisfied ignorance; the bigot might adopt it as a sanction for a war against his species. Nine-tenths of all the worst mischief, negative and positive, that ever afflicted the world, is traceable to conscience. The duty of man is to improve those faculties which enable him to think and act correctly. He must make his conscience a good conscience, and then, but then only, will he be entitled to honor in acting upon it. 7. Akin to this error is one which makes meaning well an excuse for everything. Nay, some not only excuse all kinds of follies and mischiefs by telling themselves and others that they mean well, but they make it a regular boast as a primary rule of conduct, and take not the least care for anything else. They will deliberately go on from day to day in a course injurious to both themselves and others, and, reposing indolently upon their good intentions, neglect all fair opportunities of advantage, all feasible natural means of accomplishing their ends, and finally, perhaps, allow the broad wheel of ruin to come over them, with out making an effort to get out of the way. 8. There is also a great sect of philanthropists, who, taking no pains to ascertain the true means of promoting human happiness, and possibly prepossessed in favor of many things which are adverse to it, form, in reality, through the very respect that is paid to their well-meaning impenetrability, the greatest existing obstacles to the object they profess to have in view. Men can never be sufficiently vigilant in guarding against this easy palliation of error and prejudice; their duty is to see that they both mean well, and take the proper means for forming a sound judgment and constructing a correct rule of action, CHAMBERS. CXLVI. SELECT PASSAGES IN VERSE 1. TRUE GLORY. - Milton. THEY err who count it glorious to subdue Worshipped with temple, priest, and sacrifice; 2. CONSOLATION FOR A FRIEND'S DEATH. Milton Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor: And yet anon repairs his drooping head, And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves 3. TRUTH.-Cowper. The only amaranthine flower on earth But what is truth? 'Twas Pilate's question put 4. HARMONY OF EXPRESSION. - Pope. But most by numbers judge a poet's song; Who haunt Parnassus but to please their ear, A needless Alexandrine ends the song, That, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along. Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main 5. THE HOPE OF AN HEREAFTER. - Campbell. Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime CXCI. THE MEETING OF THE WATERS. THERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet Yet it was not that Nature had shed o'er the scene "T was that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near, Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best! THOMAS MOORE. The rivers Avon and Avoca, in the county of Wicklow, Ireland. 1 |