PHILOSOPHY DISCUSSED. 159 



stable of purpose. They point to the march of improvement, 

 the advance in the actualities of life, and ask, ' When every 

 thing else is on the move, shall we stand still ? Shall the 

 opinions of a quarter of a century, a decade, a year, a 

 month ago, remain unchanged, immutable, fixed as a star 

 always, amidst the new demonstrations looming up like 

 mountains everywhere around us ?' 



"Man's life is short at best ; a little point of tijne, scarcely 

 discernible on the map of ages ; his aspirations, his hopes, 

 his ambition, more transient than the lightning's flash ; but 

 his opinions may tell for good upon that little point occu- 

 pied by his generation, and he should ' speak them in words 

 hard as rocks.' They may aid in illuminating the darkness 

 of the present, and he should therefore ' speak them hi words 

 hard as rocks.' They may have some influence in building 

 up and ennobling human destiny in the future, and he should 

 therefore ' speak them in words hard as rocks,' regardless 

 of the contumely heaped upon him by little minds for having 

 thus spoken them. What if the ridicule, the denunciations 

 of the unthinking, the sensual, the profligate, the unreflect- 

 ing fools of the world be poured upon him ? What of that ? 

 To-day, may be one of darkness and storm. The cloud and 

 the storm will pass away, and the brightness and glory of 

 the sunh'ght will be all over the earth to-morrow. Let him 

 ' speak his opinions then of to-day in words hard as rocks, 

 and his opinions of to-morrow in words just as hard.' Let 

 him speak his opinions thus on all subjects within the range 



