Opinions Hereditary.-For the most part, people are born to their opinions, and never question the truth of what their family, or their country, or their party profess. They clothe their minds as they do their bodies, after the fashion in vogue, nor one of a hundred ever examines his principles. It is suspected of lukewarmness to suppose examination necessary, and it will be charged as a tendency to apostacy, if we go about to examine them. Persons are applauded for presuming they are in the right, and (as Mr. Locke saith) he that considers and inquires into the reason of things is counted a foe to orthodoxy, because possibly he may deviate from some of the received doctrines. And thus men, without any industry or acquisition of their own (lazy and idle as they are,) inherit local truths, that is, the truths of that place where they live, and are inured to assert without evidence.

This hath a long and unhappy influence; for if a man can bring his mind once to be positive and fierce for propositions whose evidence he hath never examined, and that in matters of the greatest concernment, he will naturally follow this short and easy way of judging and believing in cases of less moment, and build all his opinions upon insufficient grounds.-Watts on the Mind.

CCCCXCII.

Diversity of Opinion.-I. willingly concede to every man what I claim for myself-the freest range of thought and expression; and am perfectly indifferent whether the sentiments of others on speculative subjects coincide with or differ from my own. Instead of wishing or expecting that 'uniformity of opinion should be established, I am convinced that it is neither practicable nor desirable; that varieties of thought are as numerous, and as strongly marked, and as irreducible to one standard, as those of bodily form; and that to quarrel with one who thinks differently from ourselves, would be no less unreasonable than to be angry with him for having features unlike our own. -Professor Lawrence.

CCCCXCIII.

On the Formation of Character. The education of the human mind commences in the cradle; and the impressions received there frequently exert their influences through the whole of life. Principles which take the deepest root, are those implanted during the seasons of infancy, childhood, and youth. The young pupil takes early lessons from every thing around him; his character and habits are forming before he has any consciousness of his reasoning powers. The grand principles by which he is chiefly actuated, are always formed according to the customs and the principles prevalent in the country or intimate connexions where he is placed, until

"What softer nature starts at with affright,
The hard inhabitant contends is right."

Cogan's Ethical Questions.

CCCCXCIV.

Freedom of Inquiry.-Let not the freedom of inquiry be shackled. If it multiplies contentions amongst the wise and virtuous, it exercises the charity of those who contend. If it shakes for a time the belief that is rested only upon prejudice, it finally settles it on the broader and more solid basis of conviction.-White's Bampton Lectures.

CCCCXCV.

Reform.-All governments and societies of men do, in process of long time, gather an irregularity, and wear away much of their primitive institution. And therefore the true wisdom of all ages hath been to review at fit periods those errors, defects, or excesses, that have insensibly crept into the public administration; to brush the dust off the wheels, and oil them again, or, if it be found advisable, to choose a set of new ones. And this reformation is most easily, and with least disturbance, to be effected by the society itself, no single men being for. bidden by any magistrate to amend their own manners, and much more, all societies having the liberty to bring themselves within compass.-Marvell.

CCCCXCI.

Truth. I believe that Nature herself has constituted truth as the supreme deity, which is to be adored by mankind, and that she has given it greater force than any of the rest; for being opposed, as she is on all sides, and appearances of truth so often passing for the thing itself, in behalf of plausible falsehoods, yet by her wonderful operation, she insinuates herself into the minds of men;

sometimes exerting her strength immediately, and sometimes lying hid in darkness for a length of time; but at last she struggles through it, and appears triumphant over falsehood.-Polybius.

CCCCXCVII.

Education.-The different productions of soil, the different temperature of climate, the different influences of religion and government, the different degrees of national proficiency in arts and sciences, and the different dispositions, or it may be talents of individuals, require us to pursue different methods in the instruction of youth. But the general principles of education are the same, or nearly the same, in all ages, and at all times. They are fixed unalterably in the natural and moral constitution of man. They are of the same kind in the fierce African, in the sluggish Greenlander, and in the more enlightened and polished inhabitants of the temperate zone. They are to be found in our affections and passions, some of which must be controlled and some cherished, in every state of morals and under every form of society.-Parr's Discourse on Education.

CCCCXCVIII.

Legislative Wisdom.-Far above all heroes, and far above all politicians, as we usually find them, would be that benefactor to his species, whose wisdom should have taught him to set a right value upon the life of man, whose eloquence in legislative assemblies should cause “ mercy and truth to meet each other," and under whose auspices should arise an order of things more worthy of a man as a moral, and more adapted to him as a social being, than

the golden age portrayed by poets, or the millenium panted for by enthusiasts.-Parr's Character of Fox.

CCCCXCIX.

Liberty. Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individul body. Without health, no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.-Bolingbroke.

D.

Ignorance. It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance; for it requires knowledge to perceive it; and therefore he that can perceive it, hath it not.Bishop Taylor.

DI.

Of Abuses.-There is a time when men will not suffer had things because their ancestors have suffered worse. There is a time when the hoary head of inveterate abuse will neither draw reverence nor obtain protection.Burke.

DII.

Error.-A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying in other words, that he is wiser to-day than he was yesterday.-Pope.

DIII.

Of Punishments.-There are dreadful punishments enacted against thieves; but it were much better to make such good provisions, by which every man might be put in a method how to live, and so to be preserved from the fatal necessity of stealing and dying for it.-Sir T. Moore's Utopia.