Transcendental Toryism 



and do what is most fit to be done, will be the Cromwell 

 of his day. 



" ' Shake but a scuttlef ul 

 Of gravel, the big pebbles come atop. 

 When times are troublous, great men, jostled forth, 

 Stand in the front of action. When the mind 

 Is moved, great qualities, before unknown, 

 Rise on emergency. For, while kind Heaven 

 Is liberal of much-neglected means, 

 Man neither knows his weakness nor his strength, 

 Till time and trial shape his destiny.' " 



" You are getting dreadfully republican, if not revolu- 

 tionary, all of a sudden. I thought you were a Tory." 



" I am, as yet, a dreamer, and therefore hold all politics 

 and creeds of which I have a sufficient smattering to form 

 an element in the hodge-podge of my opinions. A man 

 does not form his opinions really till he begins to act. The 

 weight of responsibility on the shoulders is like an hydraulic 

 press : it leaves no room for froth. But I am not sure that 

 the most transcendental Toryism would not be a belief such 

 as I profess at present. Mind you, for this half hour only. 

 The world is nothing but a great machine for milling the 

 souls of men. It was just as fit for the purpose in Adam's 

 time as now. But physical and intellectual effort being a 

 necessary part of his probation, physical truths of great 

 commercial value and convenience are scattered liberally in 

 his way. However these be, one by one, grubbed out by 

 the snout of science ; however systems of government shift, 

 and split, and fall away ; the world remains the same in its 

 moral relation to the soul of man ; nor does it alter, as far 

 as I can see, in its effectual capacity of training our spiritual 

 nature. What difference does it make to my soul whether 

 I dig or plough, or whether I travel by mule or locomotive 



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