things upon balance. She contrives to maintain a harmony between the
material and spiritual, nor allows the cerebrum an expansion at the cost
of the cerebellum. If the character, for example, run on one side into
religious enthusiasm, it is not unlikely to develop on the other a
counterpoise of worldly prudence. Thus the Shaker and the Moravian are
noted for thrift, and mystics are not always the worst managers. Through
all changes of condition and experience man continues to be a citizen of
the world of idea as well as the world of fact, and the tax-gatherers of
both are punctual.

And these antitheses which we meet with in individual character we
cannot help seeing on the larger stage of the world also, a moral
accompanying a material development. History, the great satirist, brings
together Alexander and the blower of peas to hint to us that the tube of
the one and the sword of the other were equally transitory; but
meanwhile Aristotle was conquering kingdoms out of the unknown, and
establishing a dynasty of thought from whose hand the sceptre has not
yet passed. So there are Charles V, and Luther; the expansion of trade
resulting from the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries, and the
Elizabethan literature; the Puritans seeking spiritual El Dorados while
so much valor and thought were spent in finding mineral ones. It seems
to be the purpose of God that a certain amount of genius shall go to
each generation, particular quantities being represented by individuals,
and while no _one_ is complete in himself, all collectively make up a
whole ideal figure of a man. Nature is not like certain varieties of the
apple that cannot bear two years in succession. It is only that her
expansions are uniform in all directions, that in every age she
completes her circle, and like a tree adds a ring to her growth be it
thinner or thicker.