the past, the world would be much better off; progress would have
vastly fewer obstacles to contend against. But it is not every man,
even of those who _think_, who in politics, in religion, in science,
in anything involving a possible charge of inconsistency, of the
desertion of a party, a sect, or a principle, dare avow a change of
conviction or opinion, however such change may exist. This should
not be so. It belittles manhood, and makes slaves and cowards of men.
It is a proud prerogative, this ability and power of thinking. It is a
priceless privilege, this freedom of thought and opinion, and he is a
craven who moves on with the heedless and thoughtless crowd, conscious
of error, himself a hypocrite and a living lie, through fear of the
charge of 'inconsistency,' the accusation of change. 'Speak your
opinions of to-day,' says Carlyle, 'in words hard as rocks, and your
opinions of to-morrow in words just as hard, even though your opinions
of to-morrow may contradict your opinions of to-day.' There is a fund
of true wisdom in this beautiful maxim, if men would appreciate it. It
would correct a vast deal of error in politics, in religion, in
philosophy, in the social relations of life. Times change, and
struggle against it as they may, men's convictions will change with
the times. The man who says that his opinions never alter, is to me
either a knave or a fool. For a thinking man to remain stationary,
when everything else is on the move, is a simple impossibility. Time
was when the stage coach was the model method of travelling. It
carried us six, sometimes eight miles the hour, in comfort and safety.
But who thinks of the lumbering stage coach now, with its snail's pace
of eight miles the hour, when the locomotive with its long train of
cars, lighted up like the street of a city in motion, rushes over the
smooth rails literally with the speed of the wind. The scream of the
steam-whistle has succeeded the old stage-horn, and the iron horse
taken the place of those of flesh and blood. Change is written in