It is to run through and knit the superior parts, and keep man or
State vital and upright, as health keeps the body straight and
blooming. Of course a really grand and strong and beautiful character
is probably to be slowly grown, and adjusted strictly with reference
to itself, its own personal and social sphere--with (paradox though
it may be) the clear understanding that the conventional theories of
life, worldly ambition, wealth, office, fame, &c., are essentially but
glittering mayas, delusions.
Doubtless the greatest scientists and theologians will sometimes find
themselves saying, It isn't only those who know most, who contribute
most to God's glory. Doubtless these very scientists at times stand
with bared heads before the humblest lives and personalities. For
there is something greater (is there not?) than all the science
and poems of the world--above all else, like the stars shining
eternal--above Shakspere's plays, or Concord philosophy, or art of
Angelo or Raphael--something that shines elusive, like beams
of Hesperus at evening--high above all the vaunted wealth and
pride--prov'd by its practical outcropping in life, each case after
its own concomitants--the intuitive blending of divine love and faith
in a human emotional character--blending for all, for the unlearn'd,
the common, and the poor.
I don't know in what book I once read, (possibly the remark has been
made in books, all ages,) that no life ever lived, even the most
uneventful, but, probed to its centre, would be found in itself as
subtle a drama as any that poets have ever sung, or playwrights
fabled.
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