of action. This development, if we mistake not, deserves a more distinct recognition, and a more full and scientific treatment than it has yet received. We can of course pretend to give nothing more than an outline of it in the present article. We shall speak of this development only in its relation to the thought of the individual.
In the earliest part of their lives, persons are under the tutelage of their parents. They can understand and receive before they can examine and originate for themselves. They imbibe not only their parents’ views, but also the common sentiment and belief of the community in which they live. In politics they are of the same party,in religion they are of the same sect, and of the same school in philosophy with their parents and the friends by whom they have been surrounded. Of course they must have received all these views upon some outward authority, for as yet their minds are not sufficiently developed to examine them thoroughly and perceive their fundamental truth. This authority may be parents, friends, public sentiment, usage, or anything out of themselves. With these views, resting upon such grounds, they are satisfied and content for a while. They are content to take these things upon outward, foreign authority, because as yet they know of no other. They are under the law; this law may be usage, fashion, public opinion, the opinion of friends or of men of high reputation, or the Scriptures. They are content to rest upon these outward foundations, because, as we have just said, they know as yet of no other. But with the development of the spiritual sense, they have another foundation whereon to build. A window is thus opened, through which the mind can see, or rather an eye is given by which to look into the nature of things. We thus come to have an intuition of what must be, of the absolute and necessary. It is seen to be as eternally and absolutely necessary, that love and not hate should be the law and condition of happiness among moral beings, as that all the angles around any given point should be equal to four right angles. It is seen that humility and self-renunciation have a foundation and necessity in the nature of things, as much as that two and two should be four. When one begins to see that truth and right are absolute, and founded on the nature of things, into which he
