Year: 1859

tnaJ hOrses reputation is q part OF our
own. We identify ourselves with the ami
NAL If he trots mile in three minutes,
we are proud, as if the fact were in some
way creditable to Us. If he can travel
eighty miles in day, and follow it, we feel
as if the fact were a compliment to our
selves. We see grandeur in the carriage
of his head aud grace in the movement Of
his limbs that no one else sees. So we look
over our dwelling, in the arrangement and
furniture Of which we have expressed our
ideas of home, or into our garden which is
as we made it, and their harmony aud beau
ty impress as as they impress no others
Our friends pass both without a thought,
perhaps, or they give him a quiet compl-
ment that means but little. Our dog may
be very ugly brute but we own him, and
do not like TO hear his uglineSs alluded to,
We are complimented in the admiration
bestowed upon the prints and paintings
which adorn the walls of our parlors, quite
as much as if we had made them ourselves.
There are uumberless beautiful and grace
ful women in the world, but that one Of
the number which has been the subject of
our choice, and the mother of our children,
is little better than any other, although,
for reasons best known to the world, we
may not be the object Of any mans envy.


So it is that each man has bread to eat
that the world knows not Of So it is that
each man is richer than the world estimates
him to be. There is more than one sense
in which no man makes an honest return of
his property to the assessors Of taxes. All
those objects of possession into which we
have cast our thought, or which have come
to us by purchase involving choice and
the exercise Of taste and Judgment become
partakers Of our own life--a part of our
selves and of our own personal value. We
identify all our productions with ourselves.
We have private opinion of all our liter
ary children that no one else entertains,
particularly if they are abused. Even our
opinions upon the most important subjects
are so recognized by US as personal pos
session that we cannot separate them from
our personality. 1t is for this reason that
political and religious conflicts are so bitter
Men do not get angry because an opinion
is attacked, but beSause they feel themselves
attacked with any opinion which they hold
Their conscience, judgment, taste-every-
thing in them that joined in the formation
or choice of an opinions affronted with
the attack upon the opinion itself. This is
the secret of the great majority Of the per-
sonalities and the bitternesSes that grow
out of the high conflicts of opinion in the
world. There is nothing TO quarrel over,
and get excited about, in an opinion, any
more than in potato, if it do not happen
TO belong to US. 1t is amusing to see the
indifference with which a man will regard
a public attack on an opinion which he has
not excepted, and the excitement he will
manifest when some cherished notion of his
own is aSsaied.


Now, when find law like this rum
ing through all manknd-a law which has
none but good effects when held within leg
itimatelimils of operation--I know that it
means something. Such laws are never in
stituted for nothing. Gods benevoleuce is
in them Omewhere--that we may be sure
of-and it becomes our pleasant task to
fnd it.


The first benevolent design that shows
itself to us in this law and its operation is
that of making men contented and happy
If each man feels that he has got the best
wife in the world. the brightest and pretti
est children, the finest horse, the clevereSt
dog, the most convenient and tasteful home,
the soundest opinion in politics and religion
that all he possesses has advantage ap-
parent enough to himself over the posses
sious of his neighbors-it is that be may
be happy and contented in them Every
man may see in the peculiar pleasures which
he derives from his possessions provision
of God for his special dividuality-things
in nature and art that answer with single
and special intent to his judgment taste,
and the peculiar wants of his nature. The
value that he places upon these things is
not fictitious. They hold relations to him
to his nature and his wants-that they
hold to no one else, that no other things
hold to him. They are, then, in a sense, a
part of him. His life passes into them,
and they pass into his life He is identified
with them, and they partake of those pri-
mary values which are based in each mans
need of ministry. 1t is in these things
that we are to look for Gods special man
ifestations of benevoence to us. We re-
ceive pleasure from the sunshine and the
ram, from the stars overhead and the how-
ers under feet, from ocean and air, from sea
and sky;-all these, in fact. are possessions
but they come to US, or are held, in com
mon with all of our race. We are not
proud of them. We do not point to the
sun in vanity, nor do we boast of the neb-
uloIs silver that sheets the milky way
From the general ministry of God to the
wants Of the race we get no idea of His
special provision for Us. We see benevo-
lence in it, but It is not meant particularly
for ourselves. We ind ourselves different
from other men, and we find specially pre-
pared for us those objects that arrange
themselves with delightful relations around
our indivdualties 1t is not strange that
they appear more valuable to us than to
Others, for they are, in fact, more valuable
to us than to others. My friend loves de-
votedly woman whom |, and perhaps no
one else, could ever love at all, or love so
well, and that wife is Gods expression Of
special benevolence toward him. So every
thing which, among his possessions, has q
special value in his eyes--a value not appre-