aints as Elizabeth of Hungary and Madame de Chantal are full of a sort
of reveling in hospital purulence, disagreeable to read of, and which
makes us admire and shudder at the same time.

So much for the human love aroused by the faith-state. Let me next
speak of the Equanimity, Resignation, Fortitude, and Patience which it
brings.

"A paradise of inward tranquillity" seems to be faith's usual result;
and it is easy, even without being religious one's self, to understand
this. A moment back, in treating of the sense of God's presence, I
spoke of the unaccountable feeling of safety which one may then have.
And, indeed, how can it possibly fail to steady the nerves, to cool the
fever, and appease the fret, if one be sensibly conscious that, no
matter what one's difficulties for the moment may appear to be, one's
life as a whole is in the keeping of a power whom one can absolutely
trust? In deeply religious men the abandonment of self to this power
is passionate. Whoever not only says, but FEELS, "God's will be done,"
is mailed against every weakness; and the whole historic array of
martyrs, missionaries, and religious reformers is there to prove the
tranquil-mindedness, under naturally agitating or distressing
circumstances, which self-surrender brings.

The temper of the tranquil-mindedness differs, of course, according as
the person is of a constitutionally sombre or of a constitutionally
cheerful cast of mind. In the sombre it partakes more of resignation
and submission; in the cheerful it is a joyous consent. As an example
of the former temper, I quote part of a letter from Professor Lagneau,
a venerated teacher of philosophy who lately died, a great invalid, at
Paris:--

"My life, for the success of which you send good wishes, will be what
it is able to be. I ask nothing from it, I expect nothing from it.
For long years now I exist, think, and act, and am worth what I am
worth, only through the despair which is my sole strength and my sole
foundation. May it preserve for me, even in these last trials to which
I am coming, the courage to do without the desire of deliverance. I
ask nothing more from the Source whence all strength cometh, and if
that is granted, your wishes will have been accomplished."[169]

[169] Bulletin de l'Union pour l'Action Morale, September, 1894.

There is something pathetic and fatalistic about this, but the power of
such a tone as a protection against outward shocks is mani