oward, a Mazzini, a
Botticelli, a Michael Angelo, with a kind of indulgence. We are glad
they existed to show us that way, but we are glad there are also other
ways of seeing and taking life. So of many of the saints whom we have
looked at. We are proud of a human nature that could be so
passionately extreme, but we shrink from advising others to follow the
example. The conduct we blame ourselves for not following lies nearer
to the middle line of human effort. It is less dependent on particular
beliefs and doctrines. It is such as wears well in different ages,
such as under different skies all judges are able to commend.

The fruits of religion, in other words, are, like all human products,
liable to corruption by excess. Common sense must judge them. It need
not blame the votary; but it may be able to praise him only
conditionally, as one who acts faithfully according to his lights. He
shows us heroism in one way, but the unconditionally good way is that
for which no indulgence need be asked.

We find that error by excess is exemplified by every saintly virtue.
Excess, in human faculties, means usually one-sidedness or want of
balance; for it is hard to imagine an essential faculty too strong, if
only other faculties equally strong be there to cooperate with it in
action. Strong affections need a strong will; strong active powers
need a strong intellect; strong intellect needs strong sympathies, to
keep life steady. If the balance exist, no one faculty can possibly be
too strong--we only get the stronger all-round character. In the life
of saints, technically so called, the spiritual faculties are strong,
but what gives the impression of extravagance proves usually on
examination to be a relative deficiency of intellect. Spiritual
excitement takes pathological forms whenever other interests are too
few and the intellect too narrow. We find this exemplified by all the
saintly attributes in turn--devout love of God, purity, charity,
asceticism, all may lead astray. I will run over these virtues in
succession.

First of all let us take Devoutness. When unbalanced, one of its vices
is called Fanaticism. Fanaticism (when not a mere expression of
ecclesiastical ambition) is only loyalty carried to a convulsive
extreme. When an intensely loyal and narrow mind is once grasped by
the feeling that a certain superhuman person is worthy of its exclusive
devotion, one of the first things that happens is that it