may be observed, we shall see man approaching more nearly to the likeness of his Maker, than in the former case. For wisdom is only a secondary attribute of God: love is the primary. He, therefore, who has in his heart, and shows in his life, much of goodness and love towards his fellow-beings, bears a likeness to his Maker in His very essential attribute: while he who exhibits merely wisdom, talent, intellectual power, resembles the Divine only in His secondary character. Thus the latter is, in truth, far inferior to the former,—though the world is apt to rank him as the superior, because intellect, like light, being a shining, glittering thing, more readily attracts the gaze: but in God's sight, who "looks on the heart," not at the head, the man of love is as much more beautiful an object than the mere man of genius, as a summer landscape, decked with fruits and flowers, is more charming than a winter one, glittering with ice and snow.
In looking over the records of humanity, we find fewer instances of men distinguished for the characteristic of goodness, than of those famed for intellect. For this there are several reasons. One is, that goodness is not the showy thing that talent is: intellect, as said before, being mental light, shines and attracts observation at a great distance; while goodness or love, like heat, is not thus visible, but is rather a thing felt, as it quietly but deeply penetrates through a small circle around it. Another reason is, that goodness is not so peculiar a gift as talent is,—few, comparatively, having to fill the high stations, whether in literature or government, in which great intellect is needed: but goodness is placed within the reach of all,—for it is the source and the only true source of happiness, and the
