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Without it, neither genius nor learning, neither the gifts of God, nor
human exertions, can avail aught for the accomplishment of the great
objects of human existence. Integrity is the crowning virtue,--integrity
is the pervading principle which ought to regulate, guide, control, and
vivify every impulse, device, and action. Honesty is sometimes spoken of
as a vulgar virtue; and perhaps, that honesty which barely refrains from
outraging the positive rules ordained by society for the protection
of property, and which ordinarily pays its debts and performs its
engagements, however useful and commendable a quality, is not to be
numbered among the highest efforts of human virtue. But that integrity
which, however tempting the opportunity, or however secure against
detection, no selfishness nor resentment, no lust of power, place,
favor, profit, or pleasure, can cause to swerve from the strict rule of
right, is the perfection of man's moral nature. In this sense, the poet
was right when he pronounced "an honest man's the noblest work of God."
It is almost inconceivable what an erect and independent spirit this
high endowment communicates to the man, and what a moral intrepidity
and vivifying energy it imparts to his character.
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