sincere, and then the
world can hurt us but little. We learn that we must not judge men; but
we know that when we see them cruel and vicious and selfish, they are
then but children learning their first lessons; and on each of our
visits to this place we see that the evil matters less and less, and
the hope becomes brighter and brighter; till at last we see." And I
then seemed to turn to him in thought, for he said with a grave joy:
"Yes, I have seen." And presently I was left alone to my happiness.

How long it lasted I cannot tell; but presently I seemed less free,
less light of heart; and soon I knew that I was bound; and after a
space I woke into the world again, and took up my burden of cares.

But for all that I have a sense of hopefulness left which I think will
not quite desert me. From what dim cell of the brain my vision rose, I
know not, but though it came to me in so precise and clear a form, yet
I cannot help feeling that something deep and true has been revealed to
me, some glimpse of pure heaven and bright air, that lies outside our
little fretted lives.

XLI

The Eternal Will

I have spoken above, I know well, of things in which I have no skill to
speak; I know no philosophy or metaphysics; to look into a
philosophical book is to me like looking into a room piled up with
bricks, the pure materials of thought; they have no meaning for me,
until the beautiful mind of some literary architect has built them into
a house of life; but just as a shallow pool can reflect the dark and
infinite spaces of night, pierced with stars, so in my own shallow mind
these perennial difficulties, which lie behind all that we do and say,
can be for a moment mirrored.

The only value that such thoughts can have in life is that they should
teach us to live in a frank and sincere mood, waiting patiently for the
Lord, as the old Psalmist said. My own philosophy is a very simple
one, and, if I could only be truer to it, it would bring me the
strength which I lack. It is this; that being what we are, such frail,
mysterious, inexplicable beings, we should wait humbly and hopefully
upon God, not attempting, nor even wishing, to make up our minds upon
these deep secrets, only determined that we will be true to the inner
light, and that we will not accept any solution which depends for its
success upon neglecting or overlooking any of the phenomena with which
we are confronted. We find ourselves placed in the world,