Another principle is, the deepest affections of our hearts gather around some human form in which are incarnated the living thoughts and ideas of the passing age.
Napoleon was probably the equal at least of Washington in intellect, his superior in education. Both of them were successful in serving the state.
I do not purpose to discuss faith in its dogmatic sense today.
Taking it in its wider and generic application, I understand faith to be the supplement of sense or, to change the phrase, all knowledge which comes not to us through our senses we gain by faith in others.
We know the past and its great events, the present in its multitudinous complications, chiefly through faith in the testimony of others.
The realm of immediate or personal knowledge is a narrow circle in which these bodies move the realm of knowledge derived through faith is as wide as the universe, and old as eternity.
If, then, knowledge be power, how much more power to we gain through the agency of faith, and what elevation must it give to human character.
If, then, faith widens the connections, it elevates the man.
Taking it in its wider and generic application, I understand faith to be the supplement of sense or, to change the phrase, all knowledge which comes not to us through our senses we gain by faith in others.
If we look at the realm of knowledge, how exceedingly small and limited is that part acquired through our own senses how wide is that we gain from other sources.