It is quite true, that self-cure is of all things the most arduous;
but that which is impossible _to the man within us_, may be altogether
possible _to the God_. In truth, the denial of such changes, under the
affectation of great knowledge of man, shows an incredible ignorance
of men. Why, the history of every great religious revolution, such as
the spread of Methodism, is made up of nothing else; the instances
occurring in such number and variety, as to transform the character of
whole districts and vast populations, and to put all scepticism at
utter defiance. And if some more philosophic authority is needed for
the fact, we may be content with the sanction of Lord Bacon, who
observed that a man reforms his habits either altogether or not at
all. Deterioration of mind is indeed always gradual; recovery usually
sudden; for God, by a mystery of mercy, has established this
distinction in our secret nature,--that, while we cannot, by one dark
plunge, sympathize with guilt far beneath us, but gaze at it with
recoil till intermediate shades have rendered the degradation
tolerable, we are yet capable of sympathizing with moral excellence
and beauty infinitely above us; so that, while the debased may shudder
and sicken at even the true picture of themselves, they can feel the
silent majesty of self-denying and disinterested duty. With a demon
can no man feel complacency, though the demon be himself; but God can
all spirits reverence, though his holiness be an infinite deep. And
thus the soul, privately uneasy at its insincere state, is prepared,
when vividly presented with some sublime object veiled before, to be
pierced, as by a flash from heaven, with an instant veneration,
sometimes intense enough to fuse the fetters of habit, and drop them
to the earth whence they were forged. The mind is ready, like a liquid
on the eve of crystallization, to yield up its state on the touch of
the first sharp point, and dart, over its surface and in its depths,
into brilliant and beautiful forms, and from being turbid and weak as
water, to become clear as crystal, and solid as the rock.
One of the most elaborate and valuable productions from Mr.
Martineau's pen, an article closely allied in all respects to the
ensuing Studies of Christianity, is the one of some portions of which
we herewith present an epitome.