334 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 



they are the most confiding and the slowest to act. They are more 

 suspicious of the acts of others than jealous of their own rights, and are 

 quite apt to impugn the motives of any one who seeks to bring about 

 any innovations upon existing customs and usages. Reform in this 

 direction can only follow education, and that is only brought about by 

 patient efforts. While they may be slow to act, it is also true that their 

 efforts are earnest and vigorous when once put in motion. It would be 

 a blessing to the race if reformers were unnecessary ; but the wish is 

 useless, since, notwithstanding all the appeals that have been made in 

 ages past, for God and humanity, the tide of oppression seems to be 

 augmenting as time rolls on, and the wails of the poor, needy, and dis- 

 tressed are unnoticed, even in a land consecrated to liberty. 



It is here that the herculean task of the reformer presents itself. It 

 is here that he must choose between ease, comfort, and possible riches, 

 and a life of self-sacrifice, deprivation, and possible want. It is here that 

 he must choose between the soul and the body, between the man and 

 the animal. If a reformer, he chooses the right and despises the wrong. 

 Observation has already taught him that great reforms are of slow 

 growth, and that all forms of selfishness must be buried in the great 

 work in which he is engaged. The idea of reward, except in the great 

 world to come, must not possess him. We would cheerfully grant to 

 him the consoling thought that a life devoted to some good work is 

 advancing heavenward. 



The reformer must live in the future, and consider present discomforts 

 as the credit marks for coming appreciation. Emerson further says : 



" He who would help himself and others should not be a subject of irregular and 

 interrupted impulses of virtue; but a continent, persisting, immovable person, such 

 as we have seen a few scattered up and down in time for the blessing of the world, 

 men who have in the gravity of their nature a quality which answers to the fly-wheel 

 in a mill, which distributes the motion equally over all the wheels, and hinders it from 

 falling unequally and suddenly in destructive shocks. It is better that joy should be 

 spread over all the day in the form of strength, than that it should be concentrated 

 into ecstasies, full of clanger and followed by reactions. There is a sublime prudence, 

 which is the very highest that we know of man, which, believing in a vast future, sure 

 of more to come than is yet seen, postpones always the present hour to the whole 

 life; postpones talent to genius, and special results to character. A purer fame, a 

 greater power, rewards the sacrifice." 



Another point usually lost sight of is that all reformers begin at the 

 bottom. It is the substratum of what is called society that furnishes 

 the material out of which both reforms and reformers are usually pro- 

 duced. It is among the discontented, the distressed, and those who are 

 not satisfied with their environment, that all reforms begin. Those who 



