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The statues of themselves which the rulers from the days of Gudea on were fond of erecting were dedicated by them as offerings to the gods, and this avowed aim tempers, in a measure, the vanity which no doubt was the mainspring of their action.
In his time he had met men who, worn out with the constant fight of the body's materialism against the soul's idealism, had turned their backs for ever on the world and its glittering shows, and had shut themselves up as monks of "enclosed" or "silent" orders, others he had known, who, rushing away from what we call civilisation, had encamped in the backwoods of America, or high up among the Rocky Mountains, and had lived the lives of primeval savages in their strong craving to assert a greater manliness than the streets of cities would allow them to enjoy, and all were moved by the same mainspring of action, the overpowering spiritual demand within themselves which urged them to break loose from cowardly conventions and escape from Sham.
And we say divine actions, because he must be a god who does not become indolent in that climate, surrounded by the circumstances mentioned. Deprive a man, then, of his dignity, and you not only deprive him of his moral strength but you also make him useless even for those who wish to make use of him. Every creature has its stimulus, its mainspring: man's is his self-esteem.
At length, one watchmaker, more ingenious than the rest, suggested that a magnet might, by some chance, have touched the mainspring.
I cannot understand the enthusiasm of Gibbon for such a people, or for such an empire, a grinding and resistless imperial despotism, a sensual and proud aristocracy, a debased and ignorant populace, disproportionate fortunes, slavery flourishing to a state unprecedented in the world's history, women the victims and the toys of men, lax sentiments of public morality, a whole people given over to demoralizing sports and spectacles, pleasure the master passion of the people, money the mainspring of society, all the vices which lead to violence and prepare the way for the total eclipse of the glory of man.
Whether for good or ill, religion was fast ceasing to be the mainspring of political combinations, the motive of great wars and national convulsions. The age of religion was to be succeeded by the age of commerce. But the king was now on his throne. All Paris was in rapture.
There was a note of banter in his voice, but there was something else as well that touched Crowther's kindly heart. "I don't think Avery is the sort of woman to sacrifice her husband to her children," he said. "You will always come first, sonny, if I know her." "I couldn't endure anything else," said Piers, with sudden fire. "She is the mainspring of my life." "And you of hers," said Crowther.
There is the care of the mainspring I have intentionally reserved till the last. Of course to explain every detail of the method of repairing the various parts of a watch would take more space than you would allow in your journal, and hence I will not attempt to go into minute detail, except perhaps some of the more important items, and the most common things found in everyday experience.
The prophet was apparently the most prominent actor, while Tecumseh was in reality the mainspring of all the movements, backed, it is supposed, by the insidious influence of British agents, who supplied the Indians gratis with powder and ball, in anticipation, perhaps, of hostilities between the two countries, in which event a union of all the tribes against the Americans was desirable.
But it is also true that no kind of Christian service will be effectual, if it lacks the element of grateful praise as its motive and mainspring. Perhaps there would be fewer complaints of toiling all night and wearily hauling in empty nets, if the nets were oftener let down not only 'at Thy word' but with glad remembrance of the fishermen's debt to Jesus, and in the spirit of praise.
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