political struggle and a change of government means delivering society from the hands of one to the hands of another set of criminals, and the march of civilisation is 'a train of felonies.' Yet a 'beneficent tendency' streams irresistibly through the centuries, even through evil agents. Once he knew a 'burly Boniface' in a rural capital. This gentleman 'introduced all the fiends into the town, and united in his own person the functions of bully, incendiary, bankrupt, and burglar, and yet he was the most public-spirited citizen. The 'Boss,' as he would be called in modern language, was, at the same time, 'a Man of Ross.' The moral is that his energy was good, and only wanted to be directed to the better objects. Such illustrations of the 'good of evil' are certainly rather startling, and may explain why Emerson has even been described as without a conscience. Emerson, like his mystic guides, has a tendency to what theologians call 'antinomianism.' The inner world is the whole real world, and a morality which takes outer consequences for a criterion becomes merely prudential. Moral goodness for him implies the harmony of the individual soul. The man approaches perfection so far as the eyes of his spirit are always open to the inner light,
