personal honor to quit the public advocacy of a cause which your private life dishonors. Easy to preach, you say? Easier to preach than practise? Nobody knows it better than I--unless it be you. I do not expect perfection in this world, of anybody;--I do not expect impossibilities of anybody. But there are certain duties which men owe to humanity and their race, and which members of Christian churches and teachers of Christian churches owe to Christianity and to their brotherhood, which are possible to be performed, and which I insist upon. I do not appeal to the highest motives--at least I do not appeal to religious motives. I appeal to personal honor. I say that every man, high or low, is bound in honor so to conduct himself as not to disgrace humanity--as not to shake the confidence of men in human honor. I say that every man who belongs to a Christian church--no matter what his internal life may be--is bound in honor so to carry himself before men and women, that the Christian name receive no damage and the Christian cause no prejudice in their eyes. Every man carries the burden of his race and his brotherhood; and if he be a man, he will neither ignore it nor try to shake it off. LESSON XVIII. SORE SPOTS AND SENSITIVE SPOTS. "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of the brain?" SHAKSPEARE. "I have gnashed My teeth in darkness till returning morn, Then cursed myself till sunset; I have prayed For madness as a blessing; 'tis denied me." BYRON. _Alessandra_. Methinks thou hast a singular way of showing Thy happiness--what ails thee, cousin of mine? Why didst thou sigh so deeply? "_Castiglione_. Did I sigh? I was not conscious of it. It is a fashion, A silly--a most silly fashion I have When I am _very_ happy. Did I sigh?" POE.