Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1861-08-23
CONSISTENCY.


If he had said consistent he would have
approached still more nearly the obvious
truth. Consistency is not human en-
dowment. The most finely balanced ma
ture, being still a human nature, is not at
all times consistent with itself. Not only
have all natures their weak points, but
even their strong points are by no means
uniformely strong The man who is re-
markable for some special and princely
gift will be liable to fail, not only in other
and minor respects, but sometimes in that
which is his speciality. The most affec-
tionate natures have some times been harsh
and cold, the most generous ones narrow
and penureious. The frankest person has
some instructive concealments, the most
utter devotee of truth lapse into occa-
slonal falsehood. The most refined and del
icate have betrayed touches of coarseness.
the most earnest and devout have at times
been worldly and light.
1t follows from these positions that we
should never be too confident, either for
ourselves or for our friends. Our human
superlatives are all comparative they
should be received with allowance and
mitigation. When we say man is thor
oughly truthful, we mean that is his gen
eral character. When we say he is inca
pable of the sensation of fear, we mean
that he is habitually courageous. When
we pronounce him above all meanness, we
mean that he has very strong bias to-
wards the free heart and the open hand
When we assert that he cannot have in
dulged a certain emotion, or stopped to a
certain act. we only mean that, from all
we know of him, such an alteration is
highly improbable. Nothing but moral
disability, equivalent to blindness or deaf
ness in the physical nature, can make any
fault or alteration absolutely impossible
A richly endowed nature includes the
most fearful possibilities, and owes much
of lis beauty and interest to that very
fact. We admire passion reppressed by
principle, fear conquered by, love and duty,
more than the most wooden correctness of
virtu,us stolidity. 1t is no praise to our
friend to say that he is, on given subject,
incapable of temptation; but we may say.
with pride, that we have an overwhelming
confidence in his power of resistance.
These views may we'll modify our opin-
ion Of our selves. We know our own gen.
eral character. and are won't to assume
that we cannot do any thing grossly incon-
sistent with it. This is gratuitous as
sumption. 70 human nature, in new and
strange circumstances, "all things are pos
sible." We know we are haitually gener-
Gus and just do not let us assume that
tyranny is with us an impossible fault.
1t is not only possible, but highly proba-
BILE, in remote and isolated cases. The
most gentle and affectionate women have
been life long tyrants, without once dream
ing of the possibility Of the fault. Be-
cause we have been rigidly upright in our
dealings with men, let us not assume that
we are incapable of fraud, The excess Of
our self-confdence will, by throwing us off
our guard, leave us peculiarly open to
temptations to injustice. Although We
may have forgiven injuries to the scrip
tural limit of seventy times seven, let us
not assert that we can never be litter and
implacable. There may still be in our
experience some painful, some unsuspected
instance of unforgiven wrong Even IN
our strongest points let us remember that
we are weak. There is, ormay be, taint
of sel6shness in our most generous motives.
And if any human being ever attained
perfection in any one department Of charac-
ter, he has doubtless found that:-- 4"
''The angels wanted him up in Heaven
Before they wanted me-" fgt
-SprinajfeM Republican.
BEAR CAUGHT. Melvin Wadsworth, of
this village, caught, one day last week on
Bald Mountain, yearling BEAR in a trap.
which he succeeded in getting home alive,
and without injury,sa that inflicted by
the trap. He made terrible fuss about
coming, but nothing daunted they strapped
him, swung him across pole and brought
Al -