If he could only
succeed in this instance, as well as he had succeeded in his former
essay in the black art, all might be well, and Margery be carried in
triumph into the settlements. Margery, pro haec vice, was his
goddess of liberty, and he asked for no higher reward, than to be
permitted to live the remainder of his days in the sunshine of her
smiles. Liberty! a word that is, just now, in all men's mouths, but
in how few hearts in its purity and truth! What a melancholy
mistake, moreover, to suppose that, could it be enjoyed in that
perfection with which the imaginations of men love to cheat their
judgments, it is the great good of life! One hour spent in humble
veneration for the Being that gave it, in common with all of earth,
its vacillating and uncertain existence, is of more account than
ages passed in its service; and he who fancies that in worshipping
liberty, he answers the great end of his existence, hugs a delusion
quite as weak, and infinitely more dangerous, than that which now
came over the minds of Peter and his countrymen, in reference to the
intelligence of the bee. It is a good thing to possess the defective
and qualified freedom, which we term "liberty"; but it is a grave
error to set it up as an idol to be worshipped.
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