Why they raise the cry to once, "Let us cling to common sense. Let us be guided by what we see and know. Don't let us float out on any new theory. Don't less go out of sight of the Shore of old Practice, and Custom." And lots of times them rare souls to whom the secrets of God are revealed--them who see the High White Ideal lightnin' the Darkness--the glowin' form of a New Truth shinin' out amidst the thick clouds overhead--lots of times they git bewildered and skairt by the mockin' voices about them. They drop their eyes before the insultin', oncomprehendin' sneers of the multitude, and fall into commonplace ways, and walks, to please the commonplace people about them. Jest dragged down by them Mockers and Scoffers. Some of 'em mebby united to 'em by links of earth-made metal, Sons of God married to the Daughters of men, mebby, and castin' their kingly crowns at the feet of a Human Love. Did Columbus do so? No, indeed. I dare presume to say that the more Miss Columbus nagged at him the more sotter he grew in his own views. (I have used this simely on this occasion on the side of males, but it is jest as true on the side of females. For Inspiration and Genius when it falls from Heaven is jest as apt to descend and settle down onto a female's fore-top as a male's, and the blind and naggin' pardner is jest as apt to be a male--jest exactly.) But as I wuz a-sayin', the more Columbus wuz mocked at--the more they jeered and sneered at him, the more stiddy and constant he pursued after the Land that appeared only to his prophetic eyes. Day after day, when he wuz tired out, beat completely out by the incomprehension, and weary doubts, and empty denials of the multitude--then, like a breath of balm, came to his weary forward the soft gale from the land he sought; he saw in his own mind the tall pines reach up into the blue skies, the rich bloom and greenness of its Savannas; he inhaled the odor of rare blossoms that the Old World never saw, and then he riz up agin, refreshed, as it were, and ready to press forwards. [Illustration: He saw in his own mind the tall pines reach up into the blue skies.] Yes, in every country, through all time, there has always been some Columbus, walkin' with his feet on the ground amongst mortals, and his head in the Heavens amongst Gods. He has oftenest been poor, and always misunderstood, and undervalued, by the grosser souls about him. The discoverers, the inventors, whom God loves best, it must be, sence He confides in 'em, and tells 'em things He keeps hid from the World. Them who apprehend while yet they cannot comprehend. And that is what we have got to do lots of times if we git along any in this World, if we calculate to git out of its Swamps and Morasses onto any considerable rise of ground. You can't foller a ground-mice or a snail, if you lay out to elevate yourself; no, you must foller a Star.