ever way beauty
appeals to us and calls us. We must not think that appeal a selfish
thing, because it is upon that and that alone that our power of
increasing peace and hope and vital energy belongs.

I have a man in mind who has a simple taste for books. He has a
singularly pure and fine power of selecting and loving what is best
in books. There is no self-consciousness about him, no critical
contempt of the fancies of others; but his own love for what is
beautiful is so modest, so perfectly natural and unaffected, that it
is impossible to hear him speak of the things that he loves without a
desire rising up in one's mind to taste a pleasure which brings so
much happiness to the owner. I have often talked with him about books
that I had thought tiresome and dull; but he disentangles so deftly
the underlying idea of the book, the thought that one must be on the
look-out for the motive of the whole, that he has again and again sent
me back to a book which I had thrown aside, with an added interest and
perception. But the really notable thing is the effect on his own
immediate circle. I do not think his family are naturally people of
very high intelligence or ability. But his mind and heart seem to have
permeated theirs, so that I know no group of persons who seem to have
imbibed so simply, without strain or effort, a delight in what is good
and profound. There is no sort of dryness about the atmosphere. It is
not that they keep talk resolutely on their own subjects; it is merely
that their outlook is so fresh and quick that everything seems alive
and significant. One comes away from the house with a horizon
strangely extended, and a sense that the world is full of live ideas
and wonderful affairs.

I despair of describing an effect so subtle, so contagious. It is not
in the least that everything becomes intellectual; that would be a
rueful consequence; there is no parade of knowledge, but knowledge
itself becomes an exciting and entertaining thing, like a varied
landscape. The wonder is, when one is with these people, that one did
not see all the fine things that were staring one in the face all the
time, the clues, the connections, the links. The best of it is that it
is not a transient effect; it is rather like the implanting of a seed
of fire, which spreads and glows, and burns unaided.

It is this sacred fire of which we ought all to be in search. Fire is
surely the most wonderful symbol in the world! We sit in ou