PHILOSOPHY DI8CTJ88ED. 155 



of thoughtfulness, your cautiousness, coming back just in pro- 

 portion as you tire of this wilderness life, and that by the 

 time you are ready to return to civilization, you will have 

 become as staid, sober, and reflective men of the world, as 

 when you started, with as strict a guard upon your expres- 

 sion of sentiment, or opinion, as ever." 



" It is that ' guard ' of which you speak," remarked Spal- 

 ding, " over the emotions, the sentiments of the heart, stifling 

 their expression, and chaining down under a placid exterior 

 their manifestations, that constitutes one of the broad dis- 

 tinctions between youth and manhood. It is when that 

 guard is set, that the process of fossilization, so to speak, 

 begins ; and if no relaxing agency intervenes, the heart be- 

 comes cold and hard, even before white hairs gather upon 

 the head. I often imagine that if men who really think, who 

 have the power of analyzation, of weighing causes and mea- 

 suring results, would dismiss that rigid espionage over them- 

 selves, would stand in less awe of the world, in less dread 

 of its accusation of change, and with the fearless frankness 

 of youth, declare the truth, and stand boldly up for the right 

 as they, at the time, understand it to be, without reference 

 to consistency of present views and opinions with those of 

 the past, the world would be much better off ; progress 

 would have vastly fewer obstacles to contend against. But it 

 is not every man, even of those who think, who in politics, in 

 religion, in science, in anything involving a possible charge 

 of inconsistency, of the desertion of a party, a sect, or a 

 principle, date avow a change of conviction or opinion, how- 



