VITALITY OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION. 275 



in infancy, in childhood, in youth, and in manhood. Another 

 is cradled under the influence of intelligences, piety, virtue ; 

 having around it always the safeguards of refined and Chris- 

 tian civilization. What is the difference in the degree of 

 responsibility attached to the future of these antipode begin- 

 nings ? Can you tell me where, and how these wide, terri- 

 bly wide distinctions are to be reconciled ? When and 

 where the career of these germs of being, starting from 

 points so wide asunder, are to meet, and how the balances 

 of good and evil, of suffering and enjoyment, of sinning and 

 retribution, are to be adjusted at last ? I have been asking 

 myself, too, while listening to the speech of these men, so 

 thoughtlessly uttered, where these profane epithets, these 

 impious expressions, are to rest at last ? Who can tell 

 whether they do not go jarring through the universe, mar- 

 ring the music of the spheres, throwing discord into the an- 

 thems of the morning stars when they sing together, a wail 

 among the glad voices of the sons of God, when they shout 

 for joy ? In this world, and to the duluess of human per- 

 ception, when the sound of the impious words has died 

 away, or a smile comes back to the face clouded by the 

 angry thought, the effect seems to have ceased ; but it may 

 not be so. The word or the thought may be wandering for 

 ages, vibrating still, away off among the outer creations of 

 God. The angel that bore them at the beginning from the 

 lips or the heart, may be flying still, and generations and 

 centuries may have passed, before his journeying with them 

 shall have ceased. 



