If A Test Of Civilization Be Sought,

Readers Are Plentiful; Thinkers Are Rare.

It Is Characteristic Of Genius To Be Hopeful And Aspiring. It Is Characteristic Of Genius To Break Up The Artificial Arrangements Of Conventionalism, And To View Mankind In True Perspective, In Their Gradations Of Inherent Rather Than Of Adventitious Worth. Genius Is Therefore Essentially Democratic, And Has Always Been So.

Laws And Customs May Be Creative Of Vice; And Should Be Therefore Perpetually Under Process Of Observation And Correction: But Laws And Customs Cannot Be Creative Of Virtue: They May Encourage And Help To Preserve It; But They Cannot Originate It.

As The Astronomer Rejoices In New Knowledge Which Compels Him To Give Up The Dignity Of Our Globe As The Centre, The Pride, And Even The Final Cause Of The Universe, So Do Those Who Have Escaped From The Christian Mythology Enjoy Their Release From The Superstition Which Fails To Make Them Happy, Fails To Make Them Good, Fails To Make Them Wise, And Has Become As Great An Obstacle In The Way Of Progress As The Prior Mythologies Which It Took The Place Of Two Thousand Years Ago.

Wherever The Appearance Of A Conventional Aristocracy Exists In America, It Must Arise From Wealth, As It Cannot From Birth. An Aristocracy Of Mere Wealth Is Vulgar Everywhere. In A Republic, It Is Vulgar In The Extreme.