Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/184

 as ice, takes an impression of the features peculiar to the person. No two persons are the same all round; and Heaven's boundless wisdom, while retaining its high integrity and main identity, deigns to bend and adapt itself to the needs of each man. It is said of Charles V of Spain that, having abdicated the throne and entered a convent, he used to amuse himself by clock-repairing. This noon he sets all the clocks exactly to the same minute; the next noon no two of them agreee with each other! "Thoughtless man I was," says the Emperor, "that I, who cannot make two clocks go alike, hoped to make all people think alike!" Any truth, like a stage in a journey, is appreciated with reference to the ignorance left behind and the fresh avenues to truth open before; its place is determined as a point in a line of progress. The value of a truth lies at least as much in the exertion—thought and enquiry, prayer and meditation—put forth in its acquisition, amidst possible risks and failures, as in