untain air from sinking into the gluttony which would be fatal to the
cool head and steady foot necessary for his enterprise. The man who has
a noble passion for the weak and defenceless, who from the first has
cultivated a chivalrous loyalty to women, putting far from him the
lowering talk, the cynical expression, the moral lassitude of society,
and guarding his high enthusiasm from the blight of worldly commonplace,
has no need to fight against the lower instinct that would degrade them
or wrong the weak and defenceless. The conflict is there, but it is
removed to a nobler and higher battle-field, a battle against the
sacrifice of the weak by the strong, whilst in him the lower life may be
left to settle itself, as in the unconscious birds of the air. "Love
God," as St. Augustine said, "and do what you will." "Be a child of the
water, and you may be a child of the wind, blowing where it listeth."
"Seek the kingdom of God first, and all these things shall be added to
you."

This, then, is the first great practical lesson that we learn from the
study of the laws of our human nature, taken in their widest aspect,
under the teaching of the Divine Master, the "open secret" of overcoming
in man and woman alike, that which restores to us our whole nature, and
vindicates it, even in the depths of disorder into which it has
practically fallen, as originally bearing the Divine stamp. The more
unconscious we are in the pursuit of physical good, the better for the
ends of life; the more conscious we are in the pursuit of moral and
spiritual good, the nearer we are to that kingdom of righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost which we seek. Get out of the narrow
individualism or atomism--for let us never forget that individual and
atom are the same word--which threatens to dwarf and pulverize us, which
keeps within our view only the narrow range of our own interests and
defeats their true pursuit by the very intensity of attention it
concentrates upon them; and live, as Goethe says, "in the beautiful, the
good, and the whole," the kingdom of the Eternal. Have the higher
passion that casts out the lower. The physician whose conscious aim is
the relief of human suffering and the enforcement of the laws of health,
even though a large professional income may be added to him; the lawyer
who regards himself as the minister of the Just One to uphold the law of
right and equity, whose reputation does not rest on his skill in getting