We know that the supreme good works in us always to will and to do.

We may move in our life orbits as serenely as the planets.

If we permit the universal will to guide us and its power to act through us, we cannot fail to discern or improve any occasion of good service or development.

As the light shines through our eyes, the air breathes through our lungs, and the blood circulates through our system, so will the universal intelligence manifest itself through our daily lives if we only "give passage to its beams."

If we are filled with love there is nothing in us to respond to a false note. Disease is impossible. We cannot deceive ourselves, nor be deceived by others.

It is generally through deep suffering that we learn to detach from us the thought of self.

Not until this has been done can we enter the realms of perfect peace.

Vices are distorted virtues, virtues inverted through misdirected force.

They are an evidence of power rather than of weakness, like fire that has broken from its barriers and consumes rather than warms.

We should not deal with vice as weakness, but should teach the vicious to recognize and wisely apply the energy that has been scattered.

When weeds are brought under cultivation they often become our favorite garden flowers.

XIII.

VIRTUOUS VICES.

The secret of genius is to suffer no fiction to exist for us; to realize all that we know; in the high refinement of modern life, in arts, in sciences, in books, in men, to exact good faith, reality, and a purpose; and first, last, midst, and without end to honor every truth by use.— Emerson.

IT is a custom of merchants to have an annual "taking account of stock." At such times they examine carefully the goods on hand, clear the shelves of unsaleable articles, mark down those that have become shopworn or out of season, and put new values on all for which there is unusual demand.

Just so in the thought life of a community, we find that periodically there is by general consent a taking account of stock. Old standards and ideas are removed from the shelves and carefully examined in the light of new discoveries, their character and usefulness are challenged, and their condition tested.

If they have become unserviceable for any reason, and higher thought has led to higher standards, the old theories and views of life and conduct are soon laid aside. Their defects have become apparent, and better things are in demand.

At the same time some ancient truth or teacher

that has been long labelled "pagan" and put upon

a shelf comes suddenly into notice; new meaning and unsuspected value are found in the proscribed philosophy. It throws a fresh light upon all the ethical problems of the day, and is in danger of becoming popular.

In this moral stock-taking we are often surprised to find the necessity of a new classification of what we have called "virtues" and "vices."

In the light of higher principles and larger knowledge we find we must change the tags that have been carelessly put on. Some virtues do not hold their color in the sunshine of the new century. Some vices prove to be "all wool and will wash."

What we thought wine has turned to vinegar; while an occasional cask we have looked upon suspiciously and placed in the darkest corner of our cellar, we find to be from some rare old vintage, when brought to the light of day, with sparkling color and a beautiful aroma.

Let us examine anew some of these things we have thought vicious, and revise our definitions where we find it necessary.

A stammerer puts his emphasis upon the words he finds most difficult to pronounce. The average man or woman will be most emphatic in his thought and conversation in condemning those qualities in which he secretly finds his greatest difficulties. He will commend the things which he most lacks. So true is this that it provides us with a pass key

to character. If we judge men by the opposites of their professions, we will often get the wisest understanding of them.

They bluster always, if at all, at their weak points. A quality in which we know we are strong is one we rarely need to assert. The virtue that we praise the most is the one in which we are deficient.

The place for us to post our sentinels is where we are supposed by ourselves and our friends to have least need of them.

True virtue is unconscious of itself. It is a normal condition. Consciousness of virtue indicates

vice.

Consciousness of vice suggests a truly virtuous spirit struggling for the mastery.

One of the most abused words in the language has been "freethinker," with its synonyms of "infidel" and "skeptic."

We speak of "freedom" with enthusiasm when applied to liberty of movement — emancipation from political bondage, from the tyranny of civil government.

But we have almost universally condemned "free thought."

The time has come for us to frankly admit that there is no grander term in the language than that of "freethinker," one who is truly emancipated in his thought, free from fear of opinion, from preju