156 A QUESTION OP MENTAL 



ever such change may exist. This should not be so. It be- 

 littles manhood, and makes slaves and cowards of men. It 

 is a proud prerogative, this ability and power of thinking. 

 It is a priceless privilege, this freedom of thought and opi- 

 nion, and he is a craven who moves on with the heedless and 

 thoughtless crowd, conscious of error, himself a hypocrite and 

 a living lie, through fear of the charge of ' inconsistency,' 

 the accusation of change. ' Speak your opinions of to-day,' 

 says Carlyle, ' in words hard as rocks, and your opinions of 

 to-morrow in words just as hard, even though your opinions 

 of to-morrow may contradict your opinions of to-day.' There 

 is a fund of true wisdom in this beautiful maxim, if men 

 would appreciate it. It would correct a vast deal of error 

 in politics, in religion, in philosophy, in the social relations 

 of life. Times change, and struggle against it as they may, 

 men's convictions will change with the times. The man who 

 says that his opinions never alter, is to me either a knave or 

 a fool. For a thinking man to remain stationary, when 

 everything else is on the move, is a simple impossibility. 

 Time was when the stage coach was the model method of 

 travelling. It carried us six, sometimes eight miles the 

 hour, in comfort and safety. But who thinks of the lumber- 

 ing stage coach now, with its snail's pace of eight miles the 

 hour, when the locomotive with its long train of cars, lighted 

 up like the street of a city in motion, rushes over the smooth 

 rails literally with the speed of the wind. The scream of the 

 steam-whistle has succeeded the old stage-horn, and the iron 

 horse taken the place of those of flesh and blood. Change 



