Page:The collected works of Theodore Parker volume 7.djvu/119

Rh Majorities are not on his side, nor can he be a popular man. To understand our present moral condition, to be able to give good counsel thereon, you must understand the former generation, and have potentially the spirit of the future generation; must appreciate the past, and yet belong to the future. Who is there that can do this? No man will say, "I can." Conscious of the difficulty, and aware of my own deficiencies in all those respects, I will yet endeavour to speak of tho moral condition of Boston.

First, I will speak of tho actual moral condition of Boston, us indicated by tho morals of trade. In a city like Rome, you must first feel the pulse of the church, in St. Petersburg that of tho court, to determine the moral condition of those cities. Now trade is to Boston what the church is to Rome and the imperial court to St. Petersburg: it is the pendulum which regulates all the common and authorized machinery of the place; it is on organization of the public conscience. We cure little for any Pius tho Ninth, or Nicholas the First; the dollar is our emperor and pope, above all the parties in the State, all sects in the church, lord paramount over both, its spiritual and temporal power not likely to be called in question; revolt from what else we may, we are loyal still to that.

A little while ago, in a "Sermon of Riches," speaking of the character of trade in Boston, I suggested that men were better than their reputation oftener than worse ; that there were a hundred honest bargains to one that was dishonest. I have heard severe strictures from friendly tongues, on that statement, which gave me more pain than any criticism I have received before. The criticism was, that I overrated the honesty of men in trade. Now, it is a small thing to be convicted of an error—a just thing and a profitable have it detected and exposed; but it is a painful thing to find you have overrated the moral character of your townsmen. However, if what I said be not true as history, I hope it will become so as prophecy; I doubt not my critics will help that work.

Love of money is out of proportion to love of better things—to love of justice, of truth, of a manly character developing itself in a manly life. Wealth is often made