“It is that ‘guard’ of which you speak,” remarked Spalding, “over the emotions, the sentiments of the heart, stifling their expression, and chaining down under a placid exterior their manifestations, that constitutes one of the broad distinctions between youth and manhood.  It is when that guard is set, that the process of fossilization, so to speak, begins; and if no relaxing agency intervenes, the heart becomes cold and hard, even before white hairs gather upon the head.  I often imagine that if men who really think, who have the power of analyzation, of weighing causes and measuring results, would dismiss that rigid espionage over themselves, would stand in less awe of the world, in less dread of its accusation of change, and with the fearless frankness of youth, declare the truth, and stand boldly up for the right as they, at the time, understand it to be, without reference to consistency of present views and opinions with those of the past, the world would be much better off; progress would have vastly fewer obstacles to contend against.  But it is not every man, even of those who think, who in politics, in religion, in science, in anything involving a possible charge of inconsistency, of the desertion of a party, a sect, or a principle, dare avow a change of conviction or opinion, however such change may exist.  This should not be so.  It belittles manhood, and makes slaves and cowards of men.  It is a proud prerogative, this ability and power of thinking.  It is a priceless privilege, this freedom of thought and opinion, and he is a craven who moves on with the heedless and thoughtless crowd, conscious of error, himself a hypocrite and a living lie, through fear of the charge of ‘inconsistency,’ the accusation of change.  ’Speak your opinions of to-day,’ says Carlyle, ’in words hard as rocks, and your opinions of to-morrow in words just as hard, even though your opinions of to-morrow may contradict your opinions of to-day.’  There is a fund of true wisdom in this beautiful maxim, if men would appreciate it.  It would correct a vast deal of error in politics, in religion, in philosophy, in the social relations of life.  Times change, and struggle against it as they may, men’s convictions will change with the times.  The man who says that his opinions never alter, is to me either a knave or a fool.  For a thinking man to remain stationary, when everything else is on the move, is a simple impossibility.  Time was when the stage coach was the model method of travelling.  It carried us six, sometimes eight miles the hour, in comfort and safety.  But who thinks of the lumbering stage coach now, with its snail’s pace of eight miles the hour, when the locomotive with its long train of cars, lighted up like the street of a city in motion, rushes over the smooth rails literally with the speed of the wind.  The scream of the steam-whistle has succeeded the old stage-horn, and the iron horse taken the place of those of flesh and blood.  Change