ntellect, capable of "just judgment and high-hearted
patriotism." He had not the spirit of the newspapers, he did not live
intensely in the present, but he had the spirit which has animated great
poets, and saints, and sages, and far-seeing teachers of humanity. Not
in vain had he lived alone with Nature, not in vain had he watched in
solemn twilights and witnessed many a dawn. There is, there _is_ a
strength that comes to us in solitude from that shadowy, awful Presence
that frivolous crowds repel!

Solitude may be and is sometimes deliberately accepted or chosen, but
far more frequently men are driven into it by Nature and by Fate. They
go into solitude to escape the sense of isolation which is always most
intolerable when there are many voices round us in loud dissonance with
our sincerest thought. It is a great error to encourage in young people
the love of noble culture in the hope that it may lead them more into
what is called good society. High culture always isolates, always drives
men out of their class and makes it more difficult for them to share
naturally and easily the common class-life around them. They seek the
few companions who can understand them, and when these are not to be
had within any traversable distance, they sit and work alone. Very
possibly too, in some instances, a superior culture may compel the
possessor of it to hold opinions too far in advance of the opinions
prevalent around him to be patiently listened to or tolerated, and then
he must either disguise them, which is always highly distasteful to a
man of honor, or else submit to be treated as an enemy to human welfare.
Cultivated people who live in London (their true home) need never
condemn themselves to solitude from this cause, but in the provinces
there are many places where it is not easy for them to live sociably
without a degree of reserve that is more wearisome than solitude itself.
And however much pains you take to keep your culture well in the
background, it always makes you rather an object of suspicion to people
who have no culture. They perceive that you are reserved, they know that
very much of what passes in your mind is a mystery to them, and this
feeling makes them uneasy in your presence, even afraid of you, and not
indisposed to find a compensation for this uncomfortable feeling in
sarcasms behind your back. Unless you are gifted with a truly
extraordinary power of conciliating goodwill, you are not likely to get
on