The difference is, then, whether feelings are imparted to me or only aroused. Those which are aroused are my own, egoistic, because they are not _as feelings_ drilled into me, dictated to me, and pressed upon me; but those which are imparted to me I receive, with open arms,--I cherish them in me as a heritage, cultivate them, and am _possessed_ by them. Who is there that has never, more or less consciously, noticed that our whole education is calculated to produce _feelings_ in us, _i. e._ impart them to us, instead of leaving their production to ourselves however they may turn out? If we hear thee name of God, we are to feel veneration; if we hear that of the prince's majesty, it is to be received with reverence, deference, submission; if we hear that of morality, we are to think that we hear something inviolable; if we hear of the Evil One or evil ones, we are to shudder; etc. The intention is directed to these _feelings_, and he who _e. g._ should hear with pleasure the deeds of the "bad" would have to be "taught what's what" with the rod of discipline. Thus stuffed with _imparted feelings_, we appear before the bar of majority and are "pronounced of age." Our equipment consists of "elevating feelings, lofty thoughts, inspiring maxims, eternal principles," etc. The young are of age when they twitter like the old; they are driven through school to learn the old song, and, when they have this by heart, they are declared of age.
We _must not_ feel at every thing and every name that comes before us what we could and would like to feel thereat; _e. g._, at the name of God we must think of nothing laughable, feel nothing disrespectful, it being prescribed and imparted to us what and how we are to feel and think at mention of that name.
That is the meaning of the _care of souls_,--that my soul or my mind be tuned as others think right, not as I myself would like it. How much trouble does it not cost one, finally to secure to oneself a feeling of one's _own_ at the mention of at least this or that name, and to laugh in the face of many who expect from us a holy face and a composed expression at their speeches. What is imparted is _alien_ to us, is not our own, and therefore is "sacred," and it is hard work to lay aside the "sacred dread of it."