The endless mistake of unwise men is to govern too much, to endeavor on the authority of a poor individual will to impose laws on the life and mind of man, but that which first engages our attention, is, the absolute inviolability of the laws of man,—not written upon vellum or brass,—not enforced by pursuivants and sheriffs,—but which execute themselves all around us.

We are to learn that the mind is its own measure; that the true call is the talent; true progress is conforming the life to the thought; true gratitude is to do what you can; true economy of time is fidelity to yourself; true pertinence is depth of thought; that there is no defect but is lucrative; that utterance is place enough; that your own praise is praise enough; that the like-minded are society enough.

To specify some of the ways in which this self-sufficiency of the mind appears:—

Each man has his own vocation.

All men are but several porches into one mind. Each man has his own calling, which is determined by his peculiar reception of the Common Reason. There is one direction to every man in which unlimited space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He finds obstruction on all sides but one. On that side all obstruction is taken away and he sweeps serenely over God’s depths into an infinite sea. His call to do any particular work, as to write poems, to invent models, to go supercargo to Calcutta, or missionary to Serampore, or pioneer to Michigan, is, his fitness to do that thing he proposes. And this results from his peculiar organization, or the mode in which the general soul is incarnated in him. Therefore, whoever is genuine, his ambition is exactly proportioned to his powers. The height of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of the base. Any thought that he has another call than this,—a summons by name and date and diploma, “Signs that mark him extraordinary, and not in the roll of common men,” is fanaticism, and denotes obtuseness in perceiving that there is one mind in all the individuals and no respect of persons therein.

And as the mind makes its own call so always it makes audience and occasion for itself. True pertinence is deep thought. The superficial man is always impertinent, the profound man never. Poor Tom never knew the time when the present occurrence was so trivial that he could tell what was passing in his head without being checked for unseasonable speech. But let Bacon speak, and wise men would rather listen though the revolution of kingdoms was going on.

That which engages our attention is the absolute inviolability of its laws which are not anywhere recorded in words but which execute themselves all around us with a precision and energy of which the laws of matter are only faint symbols. These are the laws which cannot be added or detracted from. Man is ever led by his material nature to attempt to limit and elude this spiritual nature and ever in vain. But any man who sees that all men are but several porches into one mind will see how futile must be all attempts at the dissembling or concealing of character or opinions.