premises which he later took for granted instead of carrying them
around with him. An over-interest, not an under-interest in
Christian ideal aims, may have caused him to feel that the
definite paths were well established and doing their share, and
that for some to reach the same infinite ends, more paths might
be opened--paths which would in themselves, and in a more
transcendent way, partake of the spiritual nature of the land in
quest,--another expression of God's Kingdom in Man. Would you
have the indefinite paths ALWAYS supplemented by the shadow of
the definite one of a first influence?

A characteristic of rebellion, is that its results are often
deepest, when the rebel breaks not from the worst to the
greatest, but from the great to the greater. The youth of the
rebel increases this characteristic. The innate rebellious spirit
in young men is active and buoyant. They could rebel against and
improve the millennium. This excess of enthusiasm at the
inception of a movement, causes loss of perspective; a natural
tendency to undervalue the great in that which is being taken as
a base of departure. A "youthful sedition" of Emerson was his
withdrawal from the communion, perhaps, the most socialistic
doctrine (or rather symbol) of the church--a "commune" above
property or class.

Picking up an essay on religion of a rather remarkable-minded
boy--perhaps with a touch of genius--written when he was still in
college, and so serving as a good illustration in point--we
read--"Every thinking man knows that the church is dead." But
every thinking man knows that the church-part of the church
always has been dead--that part seen by candle-light, not Christ-