COUNSELS.
"Counsel is not so sacred a thing as praise, since the former is only useful among men, but the latter is for the most part reserved for the gods."—Pythagoras.
COUNSELS.
"Who shapes his Godhead out of flesh or stone, Knows not a God; but he who lives like one."
Know, that seeing you, I divine your gods also. Why name them then one by one so sentimentally and so often? Being yours individually, so unmistakably in your image, surely none needs question or desire them. A thousand thanks if you will lisp never a syllable more about them. As I treat them civilly by my silence, why persist thus pertinaciously in thrusting their claims upon my attention and then questioning my piety for not christening them? O! rare respecting silence, deep is the religion that fathoms thine; speaking most reverently when deepest, and divining mysteries that none names devoutly. What if the sacred name were the silent syllable in the saint's devotions, and he
"One of the few, who in his town Honors all preachers, is his own? Sermons ne'er hears, or not so many As leaves no time to practise any?— Hears, ponders reverently, and then His practice preaches o'er again. His parlor sermons rather are Those to the eye than to the ear; His prayers taking price and strength Not from their loudness nor their length: His murmurs have their music too, Ye mighty pipes, as well as you; Nor yields the noblest nest Of warbling seraphim to the ears of love A choicer lesson, than the joyful breast Of some poor panting turtle dove."