No great cause can be forwarded by the advocacy of men who have no character, and no man can devote himself to an idea without the loss of character. When a man comes forward to promulgate an idea, we inquire into his credentials. How large a man is this? How broad are his sympathies? How wide is his knowledge? What relation does he bear to the great world of ideas among which this is only one, and very likely a comparatively unimportant one? Is he so weak as to be possessed by this idea, or does he possess it, and entertain a rational comprehension of its relations to himself and the community? I know that multitudes of good men have been so disgusted with the one-sided, partisan character of the advocates of special ideas and special reforms, that they would have no association with them. We have only to learn that a man can see nothing but his pet idea, and is really in its possession, to lose all confidence in his judgment. When in a court of justice a man testifies upon a point that touches his personal interests or feelings or relations, we say that his testimony is not valuable--not reliable. It decides nothing for us. We say that the evidence does not come from the proper source. We do not expect candor from him, for we perceive that his interests are too deeply involved to allow sound judgment and utterly truthful expression. It is precisely thus with all professional agitators and reformers--all devotees of single ideas. They are personally so intimately connected with their idea--have been so enslaved by their idea--are so interested in its prosperity---that they are not competent to testify with relation to it. LESSON XVI. SHYING PEOPLE. "It is jealousy's peculiar nature To swell small things to great; nay, out of naught To conjure much: and then to lose its reason Amid the hideous phantoms it has formed." YOUNG. "I will not shut me from my kind; And, lest I stiffen into stone, I will not eat my heart alone, Nor feed with sighs a passing wind." TENNYSON. "Fear is the virtue of slaves; but the heart that loveth is willing." LONGFELLOW.