Gen] AND SYMBOLS. 131 



tions are manifested in the destructive effects of the hurricane, 

 the whirlwind, and tornado. Gentle as it may seem, the con- 

 tinuous drifting of sand over the surface of hard rocks has been 

 known to wear and polish down their asperities, and even to 

 grind out grooves and furrows like those produced by the motion 

 of glacier ice or the flow of running water. Here then we may 

 observe great effects produced without fuss ; and we may easily 

 observe, in the phenomena of social life, that there are plenty 

 of illustrations there of the same principle. The whirlwind of 

 revolutions, and hurricane of insurrections, have no doubt pro- 

 duced startling consequences. But the influence of noble ideas, 

 spoken by undemonstrative men, or embalmed in unpretending 

 volumes, and of pious lives lived in seclusion, has produced a 

 far greater effect upon the civilisation of the world than all the 

 blustering storms of war raised by kings and factions and rever- 

 berating through history. AD. 



The Irresistible Current of Genius. 



Arctic voyagers tell us of an under-current setting from the 

 Atlantic toward the Polar basin. They describe huge icebergs, 

 with tops high up in the air, and of course the bases of which 

 extend far down into the depths of this ocean, ripping and tear- 

 ing their way with terrific force and awful violence through the 

 surface ice or against a surface current, on their way into the 

 Polar basin. Captain Duncan, master of the English whale-ship 

 Dundee, says at page 76 of his interesting little narrative : " It 

 was awful to behold the immense icebergs working their way to 

 the north-east from us, and not one drop of water to be seen ; 

 they are working themselves right through the middle of the 

 ice." They were moved by an invisible power which no super- 

 ficial facts could account for. They remind us of those great 

 men in history who, in defiance of all the frozen opposition of 

 the world, have worked themselves onwards to the accomplish- 

 ment of their destiny. Upon the surface of things there has 

 been nothing to account for either their course or their might. 

 Fixed in their places by concrete conventionalities, what is it 

 whuh has moved then right through all consolidated obstacles ? 



