Those who have the largest horizon of thought, the most extended vision in regard to the relation of things, are not remarkable for self-reliance and ready judgment. A man who sees limitedly and clearly, is more sure of himself, and more direct in his dealings with circumstances and with others, than a man whose many-sided capacity embraces an immense extent of objects and _objections_,—just as, they say, a horse with blinkers more surely chooses his path, and is less likely to shy. [Illustration] 104. What we truly and earnestly aspire _to be_, that in some sense we _are_. The mere aspiration, by changing the frame of the mind, for the moment realises itself. [Illustration] 105. There are no such self-deceivers as those who think they reason when they only feel. [Illustration] 106. There are moments when the liberty of the inner life, opposed to the trammels of the outer, becomes too oppressive: moments when we wish that our mental horizon were less extended, thought less free; when we long to put the discursive soul into a narrow path like a railway, and force it to run on in a straight line to some determined goal. [Illustration] 107. If the deepest and best affections which God has given us sometimes brood over the heart like doves of peace,—they sometimes suck out our life-blood like vampires. [Illustration] 108. To a Frenchman the words that express things seem often to suffice for the things themselves, and he pronounces the words _amour_, _grâce_, _sensibilité_, as if with a relish in his mouth—as if he tasted them—as if he possessed them. [Illustration] 109. There are many good qualities, and valuable ones too, which hardly deserve the name of virtues. The word Virtue was synonymous in the old time with valour, and seems to imply contest; not merely passive goodness, but active resistance to evil. I wonder sometimes why it is that we so continually hear the phrase, “a virtuous woman,” and scarcely ever that of a “virtuous man,” except in poetry or from the pulpit. [Illustration] 110. A Lie, though it be killed and dead, can sting sometimes,—like a dead wasp. 111. “On me dit toute la journée dans le monde, telle opinion, telle idée, sont _reçues_. On ne sait donc pas qu’en fait d’opinion, et d’idées j’aime beaucoup mieux les choses qui sont rejettées que celles qui sont reçues?” [Illustration] 112. “Sense can support herself handsomely in most countries on some eighteenpence a day, but for phantasy, planets and solar systems will not suffice.” And _thence_ do you infer the superiority of sense over phantasy? Shallow reasoning! God who made the soul of man of sufficient capacity to embrace whole worlds and systems of worlds, gave us thereby a foretaste of our immortality. [Illustration] 113.