In the long run, Truth is aided by nothing so much as by opposition. The more discussion the better, if passion and personality be eschewed; and discussion, even if stormy, often winnows Truth from error,—a good never to be expected in an uninquiring age.
A personal sense, or error, may hide Truth, health, and harmony, as the mist obscures the mountain; but Science never obscures the celestial peaks.
I find no quality so easy for a man to counterfeit as devotion, though his life and manner are not conformable to it; the essence of it is abstruse and occult, but the appearances easy and showy.
