Few persons seem to recognize the difference between narrow-mindedness and definiteness; between stability, or fixity, and simple immobility. He is most often regarded as narrow-minded who is merely definitely minded; and he is regarded as illiberal and unprogressive who is merely stable and fixed in his principles. But the real truth is, that fixity is the first and most necessary condition of progress. One must know just where he stands before he can tell which way to move. The most undeviating compass would be of comparatively little use unless the mariner had some definite idea of his present position. We must have fixed principles, therefore, before we can fairly claim progressive principles. Yet those persons who regard themselves as the most progressive, the most advanced, or, as they usually call it, the most "liberal," are generally the very persons who have the least fixity, the least definiteness; who least know where they stand, and who consequently least know which way they are moving; and he who knows not which way he moves, is pretty sure to be moving downward or backward. We can better afford to run the risk of being thought narrow-minded because we have fixed and definite principles, than we can afford to permit ourselves to be vague, indefinite, unstable, and no-minded, for the sake of being erroneously regarded as progressive or liberal.—S. S. Times.