A Gem Passage

Ii. a letter written in 183S, Lamatrino tlius beautifully and religiously explains his motives Cor entering politica] life : Wlien the Divine Judge shall suramon us to appear bufore our conscience, at the end of oup brief journey here below, our mndesty, our weaknoss, will not be an excuse for our inaclion. It will be of no avail to rflply, we vvere nothino;, wc could do nothing, we wero but as a gram of sand. He wil! say to us, I placed beforo you, in your day, the tivo scales of a beam, by which the destiny of the human race WH weighed ; in tlie one was good and in tho othfr evil. You were bilt a grain of sand, no doubt, but who told you that that grain of sand would not have caused the balance td incline on my side 1 You have iulelligence to seo, a conscience to decide, and you sliould have pfceed liiis grain of sanTI in one way or other ; you did ncither. Let the wind drift it away ; it h as not been ol any usc tp you or your brnthren.