To ignorance and sin, it is flint. Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind. He has almost lost the light, that can lead him back to his prerogatives. Men are become of no account. Our age is bewailed as the age of Introversion.
Sight is the last thing to be pitied.
This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. That, which had been negligently trodden under foot by those who were harnessing and provisioning themselves for long journeys into far countries, is suddenly found to be richer than all foreign parts. The literature of the poor, the feelings of the child, the philosophy of the street, the meaning of household life, are the topics of the time. It is a great stride. Another sign of our times, also marked by an analogous political movement, is, the new importance given to the single person.