motives wholly selfish and worldly, are not only as transient as the
clothes we wear, but often as useless as the ornaments of a fashionable
costume. The Character will be poor and famished and cold, however great
the variety of such clothing or ornament we may put on. When the
mind has learned to appreciate the difference between reputation and
Character, between the Seeming and the being, it must next decide, if it
would build up a worthy Character, what it desires this should be; for
to build a Character requires a plan, no less than to build a house. A
deep and broad foundation of sound opinions, believed in with the whole
heart, can alone insure safety to the superstructure. Where such a
foundation is not laid, the Character will possess no architectural
unity,--will have no consistency. Its emotions will be swayed by the
impulses of the moment, instead of being governed by principles of
life. There is nothing reliable in such a Character, for it perpetually
contradicts itself. Its powers, instead of acting together, like
well-trained soldiers, will be ever jostling each other, like a
disorderly mob.

The zeal for special reforms in morality that so strongly characterizes
the present age, whatever may be its utility or its necessity, may not
be without an evil effect upon the training of Character as a whole. The
intense effort after reform in certain particular directions causes many
to forget or to overlook altogether the fact that one virtue is not
enough to make a moral being. It cannot be doubted that the present
surpasses all former ages in its eagerness to put down several of the
most prominent vices to which man is subject; but it may be well to
pause and calmly examine whether a larger promise is not sometimes
uttered by the zeal so actively at work in society, than will probably
be made good by its results.