but it is not well to try to make universal lessons out of, or
universal applications of, what we haven't ourselves learned. Our own
proper lesson at this time is to learn our trade; to strengthen our weak
hands and train the ignorance of our mind to knowledge day by day,
strenuously, and only _spurred on by_ the deep stirrings of thought and
life within us, which generally ought to remain for the present
_unspoken_.

A great point of happiness in this dangerous and critical time is to
have a definite trade; learnt in its completeness and practised day by
day, step by step, upwards from its elements, in constant subservience
to wise and kind mastership. This indeed is a golden lot, and one rare
in these days; and perhaps we must not look to be so shielded. This was
the sober and happy craftsmanship of the Middle Ages, and produced for
us all that imagery and ornature, instinct with gaiety and simplicity of
heart, which decorates, where the hand of the ruthless restorer has
spared it, the churches and cathedrals of Europe.

But in these changeful days it would be rash indeed to forecast where
lies the sphere of duty for any individual life. It may lie in the
reconstruction by solitary, personal experiment, of some forgotten art
or system, the quiet laying of foundation for the future rather than
building the monument of today. Or perhaps the self-devoted life of the
seer may be the Age's chief need, and it is not a Giotto that is wanted
for the twentieth century but a Dante or a Blake, with the accompanying
destiny of having to prove as they did--

"si come sa di sale
Lo pane altrui, e com'h duro calle
Lo scendere e'l salir per l'altrui scale."[3]

But, however these things be, whether working happily in harmony with
the scheme of things around us, and only concerned to give it full
expression, or not; whether we are the fortunate apprentices of a
well-taught trade, gaining secure and advancing knowledge day by day, or
whether we are lonely experimentalists, wringing the secret from
reluctant Nature and Art upon some untrodden path; there is one last
great principle that covers all conditions, solves all questions, and is
an abiding rock which remains, unfailing foundation on which all may
build; and that is the constant measuring of our smallness against the
greatness of things, a thing which, done in the right spirit, does not
daunt, but inspires. For the greatness of all things is ours