How little can be known!
This is the wise man's sigh;--how far we err!
This is the good man's not unfrequent pang!
_Wordsworth_.
There is no faculty of the mind, of which man is more proud, than of
REASON. It is this which most strikingly distinguishes him from the
brute creation, to which he owes his empire over the elements, and by
which he dares ever to explore the councils of the Deity. The triumphs
of reason, however, have chiefly been in the fields of philosophy, and
amidst the stillness of solitude, "in regions mild of calm and serene
air." In the ordinary pursuits of life, her voice is drowned amidst
the clamour of contending passions; and every successive generation
of mankind, has to travel over the same course of inexperience and
presumption, of error and misconduct, of remorse and repentance. The
triumphs of reason in philosophy endure from age to age, and are not
only glorious in themselves, but the means of acquiring new conquests.
Those victories, which she obtains over the passions, are confined
to the lives, and written in the experience, of individuals. The
truths, which it required the utmost capacity of the human intellect
to develope, are now familiar to the apprehension of every school-boy:
but human nature continues to be as prone to evil, as selfish and
untoward, as if the divine Author of our religion had never walked on
earth. There is, in this view of the subject, much that may humble the
most aspiring intellect. It shows, that the greatest genius affords no
exemption from the ordinary weaknesses and vices of our nature, and
that the mere force of reason cannot destroy the propensities which for
ever drag us down to earth.
Even in those pursuits which are purely abstract, the different
degrees of intellect approximate more nearly to each other than we
commonly imagine. There are certain brilliant talents which we are apt
to regard with a kind of superstitious feeling, and which we suppose
to be gifted with an almost intuitive knowledge. Yet, the truth is,
that those qualities which most easily attract the vulgar gaze, are
fallacious and superficial. The highest and most lasting rewards of
fame, have been earned by slow and patient labour; while the more
dazzling career of genius has often terminated in disappointment
and obscurity. He who trusts to the mere force and splendour of his
talents, will find that they cannot sustain his flight, and that the
most brilliant inventions of the human mind fade before the realities
of nature; that there is no real glory in philosophy, separate from
that of truth, and no key which will unlock her treasures, save that
of patient investigation. There can be no discipline, better fitted
to humble the pride and silence the vanity of man, than that of the
inductive philosophy; for it teaches him that the only disposition
of mind, in which he can acquire substantial knowledge, is that of
docility to the voice of experience; and that patience and humility are
far more valuable and efficient in a philosopher, than the brightest
genius. When Newton commenced the researches that conducted him to an
eminence, which no other mortal has attained, it was by careful and
unprejudiced observation. He suffered no previous opinion to mislead
his judgment, no weak ambition to disturb his mind; but watched, with
untiring patience, for the illuminations of truth. It was, probably, to
this careful exclusion of prejudice and vanity, as much as to any other
cause, that he owed his wonderful achievements; for they must have been
attained by regular advances, by steps which the meanest understanding
is capable of following.
If these remarks are correct as regards philosophical, they are more
strikingly so in relation to moral truth. The fabric of philosophy
is the work of ages, and its dimensions are as capacious as those of
nature; but the edifice of moral truth can be perfected in the sphere
of action, and during the life of every individual. Its foundation
is laid by the hand of the Creator in the heart of every intelligent
being, and is spoken of in Scripture, as the rock on which the wise
man built, and under the type of a light which has enlightened every
man, of a word which is nigh us in our heart and in our mouth. This
light may be darkened by superstition, distorted by prejudice, or
buried beneath the cumbrous systems of a false philosophy; but can
never be totally extinguished. He who would follow its illuminations,
and become the votary of truth, must separate himself from these
troubled elements of life. He must listen in quiet seclusion to
her voice, and acquire, by humble and patient watchfulness, that
habitual mastery over his mind, which is the groundwork, and the only
foundation, of permanent excellence; and thus will he gradually come to
know the truth as it is.
He who thinks to hear her still and small voice amidst the agitations
of contending passions, will find himself deaf to its monitions.
In our intercourse with the world, and our chase of its glittering
phantoms, our interests and desires continually mislead us. We follow
their guidance, rather than that of truth; we hurry down the stream
of pleasure and business, and make our reason itself the slave of
our appetites. There is something in the alternations of hope and
fear, in the longings of ambition, and the first flushes of success,
that engrosses and fills the mind. But when the zeal, with which we
followed some object of unworthy ambition, is spent; when the violence
of passion is exhausted, and satiety has succeeded to enjoyment, we
sink down into the bitterness of self-reproach and remorse. We then
perceive how fatally we have wandered from the path of reason, and
determine, while our passions are spent and asleep, to chain them at
her feet. Alas! they will awake, like the tiger from his lair, with the
scent of blood in his nostrils, more furious and more powerful from
every success.
These loose and general remarks may serve to illustrate the admirable
economy of Providence. The truths, which it is important for us to
know, are easily comprehended. Those qualities, by the possession of
which the great end of our being is to be answered, are within the
attainment of every rational creature. By a wonderful law of equality,
the difference which appears to exist between different orders of
intellect, is scarcely sensible in its effects upon the happiness and
virtue of individuals. Brilliant talents, and rare accomplishments,
do but expose their owner to more dangerous and subtle temptations,
and too often furnish the weapon which destroys the peace of their
possessor; while humbler virtues pass along, unconscious of these
self-inflicted tortures. The latter pursue, from instinct and choice,
that path of humble and quiet action, which the former will find, after
all his wanderings, to be the only one that leads to peace, and is
lighted by the pure and unwavering radiance of truth.