I Want To Be A

[on Being Deaf:] We Can Never Get Beyond The Necessity Of Keeping In Full View The Worst And The Best That Can Be Made Of Our Lot. The Worst Is, Either To Sink Under The Trial, Or To Be Made Callous By It. The Best Is, To Be As Wise As Is Possible Under A Great Disability, And As Happy As Is Possible Under A Great Privation.

I Certainly Never Believed, More Or Less, In The "essential Doctrines" Of Christianity, Which Represent God As The Predestinator Of Men To Sin And Perdition, And Christ As Their Rescuer From That Doom. I Never Was More Or Less Behuiled By The Trickery Of Language By Which The Perdition Of Man Is Made Out To Be Justice, And His Redemption To Be Mercy.

Fidelity To Conscience Is Inconsistent With Retiring Modesty. If It Be So, Let The Modesty Succumb. It Can Be Only A False Modesty Which Can Be Thus Endangered.

It Is A Testament To The Strength And Purity Of The Democratic Sentiment In The Country, That The Republic Has Not Been Overthrown By Its Newspapers.

The Lesson Taught Us By These Kindly Commentators On My Present Experience Is That Dogmatic Faith Compels The Best Minds And Hearts To Narrowness And Insolence.