Page:The History of Liberty.djvu/5



It is a peculiar feature, in the economy of our world, that the progress of truth is always slow, and slow in proportion to its value and importance to man, both in his individual and social interests. And yet truth is the alone conservative principle in the universe of God—; the child of God, the apple of his right eye, and the most precious jewel of his throne and his crown. And yet in the economy of the universe, an economy founded upon the accredited principles of wisdom, benevolence and utility, how striking the contrast between the spread of error and the spread of truth; the progress of folly and that of wisdom—; the slow advances that knowledge makes upon the strong-holds of ignorance—, superstition and vice! yet truth is mighty—even omnipotent and has heaven’s omnipotent Sovereign for its defender. But who can tell why it hath pleased him to arrange the laws of the vegie [sic]table kingdom so that ages must roll their measured periods, before the acorn becomes the matured oak, which is so valuable to man? and why it is that the same oak, when in the full maturity of its pride and its honors, is in a moment rent by the thunderbolt of heaven and all its magnificence and utility scattered in blackened fragments on the soil it had for ages sheltered by its shade?

Who can tell why the grain of wheat whence is derived the staff of life must lie for months under the rigid dominion of of [sic] winter—and then require as many months to arrive at its precarious maturity, whilst the worthless weed the thistle and the briar spring up, without toil or care, to their luxuriant perfection in as many weeks?

And why is it that man the noblest of all in this lower creation; and of this creation the master and the lord, must