3–9 October 1831

I wish the Christian principle, the ultra prin- ciple of non-resistance and returning good for ill, might be tried fairly. William Penn made one trial. The world was not ripe, and yet it did well. An angel stands a poor chance among wild beasts ; a better chance among men : but among angels best of all. And so I admit of this system that it is, like the Free Trade, fit for one nation only on condition that all adopt it. Still a man may try it in his own person, and even his sufferings by reason of it shall be its triumphs. "The more falls it gets, moves faster on." Love is the adamantean shield that makes blows ridiculous. If Edward Everett were a sanguine philanthropist, not a shade would attach to his name from the insults of Piatt; but he is thought a selfish man, so by his own law must he be judged ; the Mussul- man by the Koran ; the Jew by the Pentateuch, One thing more; it is said that it strips the good man bare and leaves him to the whip and license of pirates and butchers. But I suppose the exaltation of the general mind by the influ- ence of the principle will be a counteraction of the increased license. Not any influence acts upon the highest man but a proportion of the same gets down to the lowest man. Signboards speak of Titian ; a regular ladder of communi- cating minds from Webster down to Joe Cash.