"No society can be in a healthy state in which eccentricity is a matter of reproach." Conventionality is the tyranny of the average man, and a despicable tyranny it is. The tyranny of genius is hard to be borne--that of mediocrity is humiliating. That idea of freedom which consists in the absence of all government is either mere lawlessness, or refers to the distant period when each man having attained perfection will be a law unto himself. Just rule is indispensable rule, and none other. The fewer laws consistent with the public preservation the better--there is, then, as Mr. Mill has shown in his "Liberty," the more room for that ever-recurring originality which keeps intellect alive in the world. Towards law kept within the limits of reason, obedience is the first of virtues. "Order and Progress," says Comte, which we should express thus:--Order, without which Progress is impossible; Progress, without which Order, is Tyranny. The world is clogged with men of dead principles. Principles that cannot be acted upon are probably either obsolete or false. One certain way to improvement is to exact consistency between profession and practice; and the way to bring this about is to teach that the highest merit consists in having earnest views and in endeavouring to realize them--and this whether the convictions be contained within or without accredited creeds. There will be no progress except within the stereotyped limits of creeds, unless means are found to justify independent convictions to the conscience. To the philosopher you have merely to show that a thing is true, to the statesman, that it is useful, but to a Christian, that it is safe. The grace of service lies in its patience. To promote the welfare of others, irrespective of their gratitude or claims, is to reach the nature of the Gods. It is a higher sentiment than is ascribed to the Deity of the Bible. The abiding disposition to serve others is the end of all philosophy. The vow of principle is always one of poverty and obedience, and few are they who take it--and fewer who keep it. If hate obscure for a period the path of duty, let us remember nothing should shake our attachment to that supreme thought, which at once stills human anger and educates human endeavour--the perception that "the sufferings and errors of mankind arise out of want of knowledge rather than defect of goodness." X.