of life at the standard by which all earthly things shall be judged.
10
Speculation on observancy, Countless precepts of custom, cursorily evolved from some solitary strange very speedily became incomprehensible.Their purpose could not be calculated with greater accuracy than the punishment which was to follow a transgression. Doubts were entertained even on the sequence of ceremonies; but while being considered and reconsidered, the object of such speculations grew in importance, and, indeed, the very absurdity of an observance at last changed into the holiest of holinesses. Do not make light of the clergy put forth by mankind in this matter throughout thousands of years; and, least of all, of the effects of this speculation on observances.We have here reached the vast training-ground of the intellect,—not only is the woof of religious begun and continued within its boundaries, but it is the venerable though awful auntie-world of science, whence the poet, the thinker, the phıysician, the lawyer arose. The dread of the incomprehensible—which, in an ambiguous manner, demanded ceremonies from us—gradually made roomfor the charm of mysteriousness, and where man could not explore he learnt to create.
11
‘’Valuation of the life contemplative.’’—Let us, us
