THE RETROSPECT OF LIFE 



led to ultimate success. Above all, we can see that 

 if we had only known what we might have known 

 how much sorrow would have been spared to others 

 as well as to ourselves. 



We can now fully recognize the change for the 

 better in man's welfare since we were young men, 

 many years ago. Without considering the changes 

 that have made alike the poor and the rich more com- 

 fortable, the greater benefits to all men are beyond 

 all number. As the end of the seventeenth Century 

 closed the delusion of the belief in demoniac influence 

 and in witchcraft, and stopped the torture and the 

 frightful death of its helpless and innocent victims, 

 so this closing century witnesses the lessening and dis- 

 appearance of other errors. In most of our Colleges 

 are now taught, approvingly, the truths that half a 

 century ago would have insured dismissal, and that 

 three centuries ago would have brought the teacher 

 to the stake. The old belief in idealism and a-priori 

 reasoning has well-nigh died out, and most of the 

 learned men of all the world turn from mere meta- 

 physical reveries, or from the dogma of an angry 

 and vindictive Judge, to the study of the works of the 

 living God, and to the manifestations of His power 

 in the guidance of the human intellect and in the 

 execution of His will. 



The study of the course of Nature has shown con- 

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