As a fruit-tree is more valuable than any one of its fruits singly, or
even than all its fruits of a single season, so the noblest object of
reflection is the mind itself, by which we reflect:
And as the blossoms, the green, and the ripe, fruit, of an orange-tree
are more beautiful to behold when on the tree and seen as one with it,
than the same growth detached and seen successively, after their
importation into another country and different clime; so is it with
the manifold objects of reflection, when they are considered
principally in reference to the reflective power, and as part and
parcel of the same. No object, of whatever value our passions may
represent it, but becomes _foreign_ to us, as soon as it is altogether
unconnected with our intellectual, moral, and spiritual life. To be
_ours_, it must be referred to the mind either as motive, or
consequence, or symptom.