56 EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
flesh and blood and bones are cheapened. He 
is all trivial, a place where three highways of 
sin meet. So is another the thoroughfare of 
virtue, and virtue circulates through all his 
aisles like a wind, and he is hallowed. 
We reprove each other unconsciously by 
our own behavior. Our very carriage and de¬ 
meanor in the streets should be a reprimand 
that will go to the conscience of every beholder. 
An infusion of love from a great soul gives a 
color to our faults which will discover them as 
lunar caustic detects impurities in water. The 
best will not seem to go contrary to others ; but 
as if they could afford to travel the same way, 
they go a parallel but higher course. Jonson 
says, — 
“ That to the vulgar canst thyself apply, 
Treading a better path, not contrary.” 
March 4, 1852. It is discouraging to talk 
with men who will recognize no principles. 
How little use is made of reason in this world ! 
You argue with a man for an hour, he agrees 
with you step by step, you are approaching a 
triumphant conclusion, you think that you have 
converted him, but, ah, no, he has a habit, he 
takes a pinch of snuff, he remembers that he 
entertained a different opinion at the com¬ 
mencement of the controversy, and his rever¬ 
ence for the past compels him to reiterate it 
