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VI. DUTY AS A CITIZEN.-PUBLIC LIFE.

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E did not consider that the man who applies

himself to public business, and undertakes to converse with men, should, above all things, avoid that overbearing austerity (which, as Plato says,) is always the companion of solitude, and cultivate in his heart the patience which some people so much deride. Marcius, then, being plain and artless, but rigid and inflexible withal, was persuaded that to vanquish opposition was the highest attainment of a gallant spirit. He never dreamed that such obstinacy is rather the effect of the weakness and effeminacy of a distempered mind which breaks out in violent passions, like so many tumors; and therefore he went away in great disorder, and full of rancor against the people.—PLUTARCH, Life of Coriolanus.

Men capable of great and prolonged efforts of resistance are usually slow to commence struggles of which they, better than any one, foresee the probable consequences. — FROUDE, Hist. of England, Eliz. c. xvi.

Your assured friend warns you, if you list SO to take it. Of this one thing I will assure

you, that those that will most entice you to take other men's causes in hand, will be the first that shall leave you if ye have need. - SIR E. BELLINGHAM, Letter, Froude, Hist. of England, ch. 28.

When one has to fight a battle of any kind, it is desirable to know exactly the ground upon which one has to stand, and not to take up any which must be abandoned immediately. - DUKE OF WELLINGTON, Correspondence; Saturday Review, 10 Aug. 1867.

So great are the numbers of those whose views either nature has bounded, or corruption has contracted, that whoever labors only for the public will soon be left to labor alone, and driven from his attention to the Universe, which his single care will very little benefit, to the inspection of his own business, and the prosecution of his private wishes. Every man has, in the present state of things, wants which can not wait for public plenty, and vexations which must be quieted before the days of universal peace. And no man can live only for others, unless he could persuade others to live only for him. - JOHNSON, Sermon, xxiii.

In every community there will be restless members, whose aim is to encourage dissatisfaction, rather than contentment: who magnify evils, less for the purpose of remedying them, than of exciting clamor and confusion; and who "imagine only deceitful words against them that are quiet in the land." Such artifices are best resisted, not by vehement contests, but by a candid acquiescence in

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those rules and measures of Government, which appear to be well-intended, and to be calculated for the advancement of the public welfare. And while there ever will be contentions for power, and these often springing from good motives, still the bulk of mankind are, in general, less interested in the result of such conflicts, than in the preservation of that temper and disposition which reprobate jealous surmises and causeless divisions. - ARCHDEACON LAW, Charge, Rochester, 1817.

Periods of revolution bring out and develope extraordinary characters; they produce saints and heroes, and they produce also fanatics and fools and villains; but they are unfavorable to the action of average conscientious men, and to the application of the plain principles of right and wrong to every-day life. Common men at such times see all things changing round them, — institutions falling to ruin, religious truth no longer an awful, an undisputed, reality, but an opinion shifting from hour to hour; and they are apt to think that, after all, interest is the best object for which to live, and that in the general scramble those are the wisest who best take care of themselves.-J. A. FROUDE, Hist. of England, ch. 25.

For commonly in a multitude the more part lack both wit and discretion; and yet the same more part will take upon them to rule the wiser. - ARCHBISHOP WARHAM, Archæologia Cantiana, vol. i, p. 38.

There are several men, and they will have several minds whilst we are on earth; and the devices and reasons of all are to be weighed by those to whom it properly belongs to give remedy: else I know not how to give the name of a Court of Justice to an House of Commons, if it admit the desires and reasons of such only as go with their sense to be heard.. SIR ROGER TWYSDEN, Journal; Archæologia Cant., vol. i, p. 210.

Albeit it hath been thought good policy in times past, not to broche too many matters of displeasure at once. -ARCHBISHOP WARHAM, to Cardinal Wolsey, Archæologia Cant., vol. i, p. 23.

No side in any of the great controversies that divide mankind is in possession of the whole truth; and every side has at least some partial glimpse of important truths which are neglected by its adversaries. —Saturday Review, 8 Oct. 1870.

Dans les disputes ne vous faittes point d'une proposition de doctrine ou d'un fait contesté une querelle personelle. -BORDELON, La Belle Education, 1693, Pt. 3, lxxxv, p. 237.

(It is not) worth the labors, the pains of a contest, and the hazard of that bitterness, which all differences upon matters of presumed concern are so apt to engender. GLADSTONE, Church Principles considered in their results, ch. vii.

'The man that takes least trouble, is the man that is most liked,' said W. . . . . L ... —

As not every failing makes a bad man, so not every error makes a bad government; and he that considers how few can properly adjust their own houses, will not wonder that into the multiplicity of national affairs deception or negligence should sometimes find their way. It is likewise necessary to remember, that as government is difficult to be administered, it is difficult to be understood; and that where very few have capacity to judge, very few have a right to censure. -JOHNSON, Sermon, xxiv.

This is my text, - that Religion is essential to the work of ruling, -a principle which holds good, whether applied to the government of a nation, or a city, or a family. Religion exalts a man's office, or work, by teaching him that it is a vocation, a calling, of God. Do you think that you have been called by God to the posts you occupy? Or, does this seem an unreal, or an exaggerated view of your position? The question is of vital importance; for a low conception of any work generally ends in its being badly done. ***

Unless we feel that God has called us to our work, we shall fail to realize our responsibility to God for its due execution. We may feel ourselves responsible to others. No doubt, you feel accountable to those who have elected you to office. I would not have you feel this less. But I say that if you are destitute of the deeper sense of being answerable to God, you lack the principle which alone can keep you stedfastly upright in your