But the peculiar object of this
desire for communication is unquestionably that in which man feels
that he is originally passive, namely, his observations and emotions.
He is here impelled by the eager wish to know whether the power which
has produced them in him be not something foreign and unworthy. Hence
we see man employed, from his very childhood, in communicating those
observations and emotions; the conceptions of his understanding,
concerning whose origin there can be no doubt, he allows to rest in
his own mind, and still more easily he determines to refrain from
the expression of his judgments; but whatever acts upon his senses,
whatever awakens his feelings, of that he desires to obtain witnesses,
with regard to that he longs for those who will sympathize with him.
How should he keep to himself those very operations of the world upon
his soul which are the most universal and comprehensive, which appear
to him as of the most stupendous and resistless magnitude? How should
he be willing to lock up within his own bosom those very emotions
which impel him with the greatest power beyond himself, and in the
indulgence of which he becomes conscious that he can never understand
his own nature from himself alone? It will rather be his first
endeavor, whenever a religious view gains clearness in his eye, or a
pious feeling penetrates his soul, to direct the attention of others
to the same object, and, as far as possible, to communicate to their
hearts the elevated impulses of his own.
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