mother, brother or sister, husband or wife or child, more than Truth, is not of Truth's anointing. Neither man's tastes nor his distastes, neither his fears nor his affections, nor world-interest, nor world-approval, no, nor most imperious Law or Custom, have right to rule the life of man. Let a man rule himself! The soul must be its own arbiter.

Thou dost rule thyself-sayest thou. What! when world-bewilderments have bound thine eyes; when the yoke of the world's morality-whose ground and reasons thou knowest not-is on thy neck; when legal sophistries and trade quibbles and shufflings have hampered thee; when codes of honor' goad thee on; when men's smiles and frowns, and friendly approbation, and indifferent judgments, and pointing fingers of the keen-eyed foe, beckon or deter thee; when children cling about thy knees, and love looks beseechingly in thy undetermined eyes; when custom charms thee with her unseen spells;-canst thou then rule thine own soul, and walk with steady step and eye unmoved toward the Ideal which thy soul did once set up, as God's image, for thy life's worship; toward the far goal which that image shall point out, even to the throne of God? Wilt thou even endeavor this? God's blessing on thee! God's strength in thine hour of need, thy little hour of life-long toil! For calumny shall point at thee; Trade and Law and World-piety shall follow at the heels of custom to harass thy long march thrö the enemies' country; wife and babes and household gods thou hast left behind thee:-reckon not upon the camp-followers! Even the one tried friend, who has fought besides thee from thy youth up, thy shield and strife-fellow from thy first enlisting: he in this last march has slackened pace,-never so little; thou hast left him behind thee—but a few steps-and henceforth thou art alone. All things that were most dear to thee (and who can love as thou, who lovest and wouldst fain be lovely and beloved, cherishing thy own soul as a part of the Universal Beauty, keeping it in its integrity for truth's sake), all things that thou didst doat upon, are estranged from thee. For thou wouldst possess thyself; and the world envies thee that possession. Has not the Son of Truth stood ever alone? for the world understood him not. Yet fear not! Tho all this come upon thee, tho the world's curse be thy companion, so thou possess thyself, the Devil shall not harm thee. Thou in thy lone majesty, on thy Promethean rock, shalt be free from the one worst curse-the curse of self-contempt, that unseen vulture which preyeth upon those who possess not their own souls. The unjudging curse of others—a curse thou shalt outlive -a curse which thy own heart reverses, as sweet natures change and discern poisons-is the worst that can befal thee. And even that not sure: for the dull world grows wiser daily. Beauty-be men never so slow-hearted—is ever attractive. Iphigenia has still her Cymon: and the true heart is not barren.

Grow on, thou noble forester! Pierce with thy deep roots into the firm earth! no storm shall shake thy enduring foundations. Spread wide thy foliaged arms; the tired have shelter under thee,-they shall bless thee; the lark from heaven's Orient gate shall bring thee echoing of God's words; the evening star smile on thy shadowed life. Thou man, who growest like the forest monarch, putting forth thy branching virtues from the strong heart within thee, thy proud head soaring skyward!-in thy very existence is an enjoyment, in thy self-possession a wealth,

which the worldling knoweth not, —a wealth and an enjoyment too deeply-rooted in the eternal nature of God, for time to change, or storm to overthrow.

"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams and health and quiet breathing."

There is no beauty like a beautiful life.

W. J. LINTON.

HOW GOD REVEALS HIMSELF.

"Observe that, when God is revealed, it cannot be as the One, as the Infinite, or Absolute, but only as thrö media. And as there are no Infinite media, no signs that express the infinite, no minds, in fact, that can apprehend the infinite by direct inspection, the One must appear in the manifold; the Absolute in the conditional; Spirit in form; the Motionless in motion; the Infinite in the finite. He must distribute Himself, He must let forth His nature in sounds, colors, forms, works, definite objects and signs. It must be to us as if Brama were walking up; as if Jehovah, the Infinite I am, the absolute, were dividing of Himself into innumerable activities that shall dramatize His immensity, and bring Him within the moulds of language and discursive thought. And in whatever thing He appears, or is revealed, there will be something that misrepresents, as well as something that represents Him. The revealing process, that which makes Him appear, will envelop itself in clouds of formal contradiction-that is, of diction which is contrary, in some way, to the truth, and which, taken simply as diction, is continually setting forms against each other." -Bushnell.

OF SINCERITY.

BY JANUARY SEARLE.

INCERITY is the foundation of the virtues, and the secret of all true success. It is the soul's armor, strength, and weapon; the seal wherewith God stamps a man to assure us of the nobility of his nature. Every high, and beautiful life which has been manifested in the world, every great thought and deed, bears the impress of this divine attribute. History, poetry, science, art, morals, and religion, are the achievments of its power and enterprize. It is the sword of the spirit, and the conqueror of all things; and without it there is nothing possible for man, either to be or do.

Carlyle, with that keen insight which is characteristic of him, makes sincerity the test of heroism, in his lectures On Heroes, and Hero-Worship.' Odin, Mahomet, Luther, Cromwell, are all judged by this Standard; and altho the truths they severally represented are opposed to each other, he raises them to one common platform and peerage, because they were equally possessed of this virtue. It should be remembered, however, that sincerity is not truth, altho it is truthfulness; and that there is such a thing as a man holding sincerely to a falsehood. It is the duty, therefore, of every one to take heed that he is not cheated by appearances, and deceived by partial evidence in his judgments; for this is a great calamity, which even the wisest men are not wholly exempt from. An open and receptive, as well as a sincere nature, is, therefore, necessary to secure the privileges and immunities of the highest life. For growth is the condition of spiritual existence, as being is the consummation of it; and whilst we are planted in the soil, we should feed ourselves with the vital blood of all thingsstars, streams, trees, and flowers-to make this existence perfect.

There is nothing so fatal to the beauty and proportion of a man, as a limited culture. We require an infinite atmosphere to breath in, if we are to be sound and healthy. All narrow confines-even tho they enclose a garden of sweet flowers and delicious odors-dwarf the stature of the intellect, and pine the longings of the spirit. Truth has many dark and wonderful eyes, many sides and bosoms, many feet and hands;—she carries the organs of both sexes in her person, and it is at once beautiful and deformed, wise and unwise, holy and unholy. All things are symbolical of her existence, and every thing hides a part of her secret. She is the great, universal Riddle; the Mother of Pan, of Men, and all the gods, and our mission on earth is to solve her. It iequires, therefore, a wide and profound culture to equip us for this battle-field of thought; and the sincere man who enters upon it, will take care that he is not burdened with what the Romans called impedimenta, baggage hinderance, in the shape of prejudice. I know it is difficult to cast out the dogmas which have been taught us during our youth, and that there is to most men, a profanity involved even in the questioning

of them; but if our life is to be true and heroic, not false and traditionary, we must know idols from gods, and suffer no falsehood to rule us.

It is indeed high time that we learned the great lesson of self-reliance, in our dealings with truth and in our relations to the world. Man has lived long enough under the old stars, on the old earth, to use his eyes, hands, and feet without the help either of priest or seer; and all that he now needs is to have faith in his faculties. I desire to see men domesticated with nature, as with a good and wise mother, that mankind may form a beautiful household of brothers and sisters. Let us love the warm sunshine, and the musical rain; the storm, the lightning and the thunder, and accept them for the discipline and development of the spirit. Why should we consider ourselves aliens in a world so true, and so finely adapted to our nature? I cannot tell what is beyond this life,-what stellar thrones and solar empires, what immortalities and eternities, what infinite and unknown secrets, lic scattered along the flaming causeway of the eternal,-nor what duties, hopes, loves, and fears may belong to that enchanted estate of the Triune Pantheon,-but the life which I now have is real, and not to be doubted, let Berkeley say what he will. I prize it therefore, because I feel it, love it, and enjoy it; and I go to rest thankfully after my day's labor, wrapt securely in by the starry curtains of heaven, and pay no heed to the hooting of owls.

It is the first requisite to a sincere life, that one should feel the earth solid under his foot, in order that he may assume an upright and firm attitude to friends and foes. To gain this foothold he must trust himself, and cry aloud with Hamlet, to all officious helpers, "Unhand me Gentlemen!" It is amazing how easy it is for a person to use his own limbs, when he throws away his crutches; and every unaided exertion gives fresh strength to the faculties exercised. Inaction and imbecility are yokefellows, and stand related as cause and effect. It is the law both of mind and body that there shall be no strength without excrcise; and seeing that there is so much falsehood and weakness in the world, it is worth a great effort to be strong in order that we may be true. To be weak, says John Milton, is to be miserable, doing or suffering; and there is no way of becoming strong but by self-reliance. When a man can once hold up his head, and say to the world, I neither fear your frown, nor court your smile, and I will have neither your truth nor your falsehood until I have proved the metal of both, he is already bucklered and armed for truth, and carries God's commission for battle in his bosom. He will be assaulted on every hand by doleful and despairing spirits ;he will be followed by winged Lies, and poisonous Rumors; by fiery Persecution, and spectral Auto-de-fès, with the hate of hell scowling out of their hooded eyes; for these are the Monsters which the world keeps in its Valley-of-the-Shadowof-Death, to affright the hero from his purpose, and scare him from his enterprize. But once fronted with the keen eyes of resolution, and the calm spirit of truth, and they vanish away, leaving all the blue and boundless heavens as a coronal to crown the conqueror.

Fear of the world is the greatest foe to truth; and yet there is nothing so base and cowardly as fear. Every one would be ashamed to acknowlege that he was influenced by it, and yet most men are its born thralls. Even the most solemn convictions respecting vital truth and the conduct of life, are smothered

in the Nightmare grasp of this brooding Vampire. What will the world say, if I confess this truth which I now hold, or if I adopt this new life which is recommended by my reason and conscience is? the primary question with most men; and few dare to say: This is truth, and this will I live and die by, so help me God! And thus it happens that we rarely face a man in society, but some shadow of a man, who in the presence of a sincere and upright spirit, seems to say—'I beg your pardon, for wearing this mask, but I have lost my soul.' I am ashamed to see how insincerity and expediency thrive in the world; for it is a damning proof of the general depravity of mankind. And yet I know that the stern woman, who with blindfolded eyes holds the scales of God's justice in her hands, is never deceived by the tricks and frauds of men-but renders to every one the full measure of his reward. And whilst I am speaking upon this subject, let me drop a word of consolation to the young man who is struggling to consummate the high aims of life in the midst of poverty, wrong, and the scorn and contumely of the world. For he cannot know too early how the ledger of compensation is kept, nor why it is that the wicked and ignoble are often prosperous, whilst the good and noble are as often suffered to starve. Weak minded and short-seeing men are liable to be cheated by this anomaly; and I know many who having set out in life with honest purposes have been induced to strike sail to the demons of doubt and despair-because they saw that dishonesty was often laden with rich spoils, whilst they were bare and naked. Let all such persons know that God does not trouble himself about goods and chattels; neither does he care how much or how little any man gets of these commodities. What he does care about is a pure and upright spirit. This he commands every one to be, before all other things; to be in spite of the loss of all other things; and this alone is riches, power, honor, glory, prosperity. External wealth may be gained readily enough, if a man will sacrifice his own soul to the gaining of it. No man of ordinary talent need be poor, according to the world's meaning, if he will devote himself unscrupulously to the getting of riches, if he will forfeit his self-esteem as a man, forego his own proper culture, forget his high estate, and the mighty spiritual empire he was born to conquer, and become a slave to the devil and his angels. But such compensation is death. It may minister to the animal wants-the social pride-the vanity and ambition of the skeleton that has earned it—but it cannot bring that inward peace, joy, and blessedness, which the upright soul enjoys in spite of the poverty of its environment. The prosperity of the wicked, therefore, is but illusive glare; it is not solid and lastingbut a bubble that perishes. It is the gilded Phantasmagoria wherewith Midas surrounds his victims-that he may lure them onwards to destruction. But the compensation of the good and true, is sure and everlasting. They alone live, for they deal with the verities of God. Still it must not be thought that I pass a sweeping condemnation upon the occupations of trade and commerce, or that I include all men who have been successful in these adventures, under the category of falsehoods. I allude, in the previous remarks, to those alone who unscrupulously pursue wealth as the chief good, and whose prosperity seems, to superficial observers, to make heaven the sanctioner of their wickedness. I am far, however, from thinking that wealth and goodness are incompatible: for, given a good man, with talents, prudence, promptness and resolve, and other things