Lectures and Miscellanies

out to us, and which has so long furnished the staple spiritual commodity of the old theologj. But I vehemently discredit the prospect of any positive good. Man's true good never comes from without him, but only from the depths of divinity within him, and whatever tends to divert his atten- tion from this truth, and fix it on Mahommedan paradises, and salvation through electricity, claims his most vindictive anathema. Above all, a spirit- ual life which feels itself depleted by the diligent prosecution of the natural one, which is actually interested to invade the latter, and persuade good sound flesh and blood to barter its savory cakes and ale for trite and faded sentimentalities, is a life which every reasonable person may safely scout as unworthy his aspiration.