whether it be
exhibited, in the physical or the supersensual sphere. Such a
demonstration is most important; for so long as the spiritual life is
regarded as merely a departmental thing, and its full development as a
matter for specialists or saints, it will never produce its full effect
in human affairs. We must exhibit it as the full flower of that Reality
which inspires all human life. _"All_ kinds of skill," said Tauler, "are
gifts of the Holy Ghost," and he might have said, all kinds of beauty
and all kinds of courage too.

The heroic makes a direct appeal to lads and girls, and is by far the
safest way of approach to their emotions. The chivalrous, the noble, the
desperately brave, attract the adolescent far more than passive
goodness. That strong instinct of subjection, of homage, which he shows
in his hero-worship, is a most valuable tool in the hands of the teacher
who is seeking to lead him into greater fullness of life. Yet the range
over which we seek material for his admiration is often deplorably
narrow. We have behind us a great spiritual history, which shows the
highest faculties of the soul in action: the power and the happiness
they bring. Do we take enough notice of it? What about our English
saints? I mean the real saints, not the official ones. Not St. George
and St. Alban, about whom we know practically nothing: but, for
instance, Lancelot Andrewes, John Wesley, Elizabeth Fry, about whom we
know a great deal. Children, who find difficulty in general ideas, learn
best from particular instances. Yet boys and girls who can give a
coherent account of such stimulating personalities as Julius Caesar,
William the Conqueror, Henry VIII. and his wives, or Napoleon--none of
whom have so very much to tell us that bears on the permanent interests
of the soul--do not as a rule possess any vivid idea, say, of Gautama,
St. Benedict, Gregory the Great, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Francis
Xavier, George Fox, St. Vincent de Paul and his friends: persons at
least as significant, and far better worth meeting, than the military
commanders and political adventurers of their time. The stories of the
early Buddhists, the Sufi saints, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius,
the early Quakers, the African missionaries, are full of things which
can be made to interest even a young child. The legends which have grown
up round some of them satisfy the instinct that draws it to fairy tales.
They help it to dream well; and give to