Many of our firmest convictions, as we now
call them, when we shall have let light enough fall upon them, we shall
be compelled and enabled to confess to be at bottom mere mulishness and
pride of heart. The mulish, obstinate, and proud man never says, I don't
know. He never asks anything to be explained to him. He never admits
that he has got any new light. He never admits having spoken or acted
wrongly. He never takes back what he has said. He was never heard to
say, You are right in that line of action, and I have all along been
wrong. Had he ever said that, the day he said it would have been a white-
stone day both for his mind and his heart. Only, the spoiled son of
Spare-the-Rod never said that, or anything like that.
But, most unfortunately, it is in the very best things of life that the
true mulishness of the obstinate man most comes out. He shows worst in
his home life and in the matters of religion. When our Obstinate was in
love he was as sweet as honey and as soft as butter. His old friends
that he used so to trample upon scarcely recognised him.
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