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Hereditary Genius
281
men; that he is a disguised pariah, who would deserve to be driven
out with indignation, if his recent acts and real character were
suddenly disclosed. The Christian feels all this, and something more.
He feels he has committed his faults in the full sight of a pure God;
that he acts ungratefully and cruelly to a Being full of love and
compassion, who died as a sacrifice for sins like those he has just
committed. These considerations add extreme poignancy to the sense
of sin, but it must be recollected that they depend upon no difference
of character. If the sceptic held the same intellectual creed, he would
feel them in precisely the same way as the religious man. It is not
necessarily dulness of heart that keeps him back.
It is also sometimes believed that Puritanic ways are associated
with strong religious professions; but a Puritan tendency is by no
means an essential part of a religious disposition. The Puritan's
character is joyless and morose; he is most happy, or, to speak less
paradoxically, most at peace with himself when sad. It is a mental
condition correlated with the well-known Puritan features, black
straight hair, hollowed cheeks, and sallow complexion. A bright, blue-
eyed, rosy-cheeked, curly-headed youth would seem an anomaly in a
Puritanical assembly. But there are many divines mentioned in
Middleton, whose character was most sunny and joyful, and whose
society was dearly prized, showing distinctly that the Puritan type is a
speciality, and by no means an invariable ingredient in the constitution
of men who are naturally inclined to piety.
The result of all these considerations is to show that the chief
peculiarity in the moral nature of the pious man is its conscious
instability. He is liable to extremes —now swinging forwards into
regions of enthusiasm, adoration, and self-sacrifice; now backwards
into those of sensuality and selfishness. Very devout people are apt to
style themselves the most miserable of sinners, and I think
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