such an arbitrary division of time as that of the clock and the pulsation of the vein in the thumb. So I bade my brother blindfold me, and thus, unseeing, I was planted as before. Not once now did the throbbing of the vein and the swing of the coin correspond with the striking and ticking of the clock.
No one can be conscious how liable he is to self-deception, till he proves it by experiment.
The case of Hänel is by no means exceptional. There have been many in Germany, even men of intelligence and education, who have been deceived by them.
It must be borne in mind that there are thousands and tens of thousands of individuals with undeveloped wills, who cry out for being taken in hand and managed by such as have determination of character. They are watches demanding periodical winding-up, and like that of Captain Cuttle have to be put back half an hour every morning and about another quarter towards the afternoon, and then they are watches that would do a man credit. As to self-regulation, of that they profess themselves to be incapable.
These irresolutes are to be encountered everywhere; they exist in shoals in the Roman Communion. They are to be found, but happily less frequently, in the English Church, and there are plenty of them in the several Dissenting Societies, crying out to be taken in hand, set a-going, put back half an hour in the morning and a quarter towards the afternoon.
We have to take the world of men and women as we find it, and make efforts to supply its deficiencies; and the duty of such as are called in to be physicians of souls is to brace up these impotent wills, and teach them to acquire character.
In crossing on a summer day from Dover to Ostend, I have seen thousands of jelly-fish, purple and white, floating in the sea, beautiful in their way, but purposeless in their action, drifting with the current, to be thrown up on the strand, or carried forward into the deep ocean. And there be human beings like these, that are swept along by the current of common opinion, of fashion in colour, in expanded or clinging skirts, in the dressing of the hair, in religion and in moral conduct. It appears to me that it is the obligation laid upon every one who has any directive power given to him, any direction thrust on him, to employ his
