a period in the mental development of those who will be ablest and maturest, at which Vealy thought and language are accepted as the best.  Veal will be highly appreciated by sympathetic calves; and the greatest men, with rare exceptions, are calves in youth, while many human beings are calves forever.  And here I may remark, as something which has afforded me consolation on various occasions within the last year, that it seems unquestionable that sermons which are utterly revolting to people of taste and sense have done much good to large masses of those people in whom common sense is most imperfectly developed, and in whom taste is not developed at all; and accordingly, wherever one is convinced of the sincerity of the individuals, however foolish and uneducated, who go about pouring forth those violent, exaggerated, and all but blasphemous discourses of which I have read accounts in the newspapers, one would humbly hope that a Power which works by many means would bring about good even through an instrumentality which it is hard to contemplate without some measure of horror.  The impression produced by most things in this world is relative to the minds on which the impression is produced.  A coarse ballad, deficient in rhyme and rhythm, and only half decent, will keep up the attention of a rustic group to whom you might read from “In Memoriam” in vain.  A waistcoat of glaring scarlet will be esteemed by a country bumpkin a garment every way preferable to one of aspect more subdued.  A nigger melody will charm many a one who would yawn at Beethoven.  You must have rough means to move rough people.  The outrageous revival-orator may do good to people to whom Bishop Wilberforce or Dr. Caird might preach to no purpose; and if real good be done, by whatever means, all right-minded people should rejoice to hear of it.

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And this leads to an important practical question, on which men at different periods of life will never agree. When shall thought be regarded as mature?  Is there a standard by which we may ascertain beyond question whether a composition be Veal or Beef?  I sigh for fixity and assurance in matters aesthetical.  It is vexatious that what I think very good my friend Smith thinks very bad.  It is vexatious that what strikes me as supreme and unapproachable excellence strikes another person, at least as competent to form an opinion, as poor.  And I am angry with myself when I feel that I honestly regard as inflated commonplace and mystical jargon what a man as old and (let us say) nearly as wise as myself thinks the utterance of a prophet.  You know how, when you contemplate the purchase of a horse, you lead him up to the measuring-bar, and there ascertain the precise number of hands and inches which he stands.  How have I longed for the means of subjecting the mental stature of human beings to an analogous process of measurement!  Oh for some recognized and unerring gauge of mental