duce any measure requisite for the well being of the State, or the greater comfort of himself, he, making judicious allowance for the obliquity of the public intellect, will never bring forward a measure with a coarse appeal as to its necessity, but employing the clap-trap of the old orators, he will urge on the passions, or inflame the jealousies, or by a jocose and smart speech, sneer at the opposite prejudices, and thus, by indirect means, arrive at the object he wants; for these reasons, this intermeddling and querulous spirit of seeking out the truth has been catalogued by the Fathers as a very busy agent of the power of darkness." How wonderfully suggestive was all this of springs and wires, trap-doors and scene-shifting! Let us be satisfied with the spectacle of these little human Marionettes, nor seek the mechanical appliances by which we are thus entertained. CHAPTER X. "Know that the human being's thoughts and deeds The inner world his microcosmus is, The deep shaft out of which they spring eternally. SCHILLER. It had often pleased me to think that I possessed a plain common kind of understanding, the structure of which, if not elaborate, was at least sound and substantial; nor was it until I had passed some time in these Purgatorial regions, that I ever heard its good qualities called into question; for with us English, it is esteemed a national boon and privilege, peculiar to our invigorating climate, and surely it is excusable to be proud of an intellect which will not be deluded by metaphysic mists, or the dull pedantries of the age. Imbued with such opinions, I one day began to expound concerning the efficacy of this stamp of understanding, and of its free powers of action. A man who was standing by, and who had quietly listened to all I had to say, attempted a refutation. "A versatile mind," said he, "which is the direct opposite of that sort of mental being you have described and recommended, is the only capacious mind. Common-sense is always coarse, and all true thinking is always what you call unhealthy. This versatility may be the production of a certain intemperance of passion, which never acts regularly-now one whim, now another, strutting upon the stage with impetuosity, and after awhile strutting off. This is the versatility of Passion. But the versatility of Mind is widely different. Here we have different agents to deal with: instead of motive we find perception-instead of impulse we have vision. I admit with you, that a man, variable in his desires and tastes is a very objectionable individual; this is the versatility of Passion. But one of like versatility in his mental nature claims a far deeper consideration. Every one admits that passion and instinct are but dark agencies, ranging, as they do, from the mental, into the depths of the animal and brute world— an inferior kind of intellect, fitted for an inferior race of creatures. Guard well this distinction, and you will at once see the superiority of the one, and the meanness of the other. "In a spontaneous train of thinking, there arises, from some unseen source-prompted neither by effort nor outward associations-a train of perceptions which one after another come and depart in orderly succession. If, in the midst of this state, you watch the operation, and listen to the conversation of these demons, you will perceive them to be a mass of old ideas and experiences, floating upwards from the depths of memory. These were originally mere sensuous ideas—they are old consciousnesses, and having been cast away, this many a day from immediate recognition, they have fallen confusedly into memory, where darkness sits brooding upon the waters. There, these experiences lie -there some of them dwell for ever, and die for ever; and some, in obedience to the inner laws which rule all nature, again grow instinct, and appeal to us as Mind or Law. There exists also a similarity—a kindred sympathy-an affinity of like to like a mysterious connection among the present spirits, and the slumbering spirits of the past, by which some one idea immediately before us will drag in a whole train of those, byegone. These come in some array or order, and men call this Mind. Over this we have no control; its nature is a mystery and a miracle, as all original natures are. Never dream of the possibility of probing this secret; all that is permitted us is, to watch its operation. There is the battery, and here the wires, but what that wondrous spirit is, which flashes before the eye, who can tell? There is the miracle-the eternal riddle-never to be read. "External impressions, after their immediate perception by the senses, go not utterly away, but rest on the mind or memory; from thence they appeal again to a man-or rather to his consciousness; but in this after appeal they link themselves together spontaneously in a new form. This after-perception is Thought, which ebbs and flows according to the laws of its combination, and it is the aim of man to render it tributary to his will. Build thy faith on this rock, and the powers of Hell shall not prevail against thee, for every man is weak or strong, confident or pitiful, according to the intensity or dimness of his convictions, which, if of a proper depth and durability, will compel respect and toleration, even from enemies, because all men love and fear a principle. Now, the peculiarity of a versatile kind of intellect is, that these new thoughts are with it, more frequent and active than with lower forms.” Now, I knew very well that certain men had endeavoured to form these reasonings upon Thought |