sion of our own superior thoughts. For it is an
incredible and most bewildering fact that a man, through life, is on
variable terms with himself; he is aware of tiffs and reconciliations;
the intimacy is at times almost suspended, at times it is renewed again
with joy. As we said before, his inner self or soul appears to him by
successive revelations, and is frequently obscured. It is from a study
of these alternations that we can alone hope to discover, even dimly,
what seems right and what seems wrong to this veiled prophet of ourself.

All that is in the man in the larger sense, what we call impression as
well as what we call intuition, so far as my argument looks, we must
accept. It is not wrong to desire food, or exercise, or beautiful
surroundings, or the love of sex, or interest which is the food of the
mind. All these are craved; all these should be craved; to none of these
in itself does the soul demur; where there comes an undeniable want, we
recognise a demand of nature. Yet we know that these natural demands may
be superseded, for the demands which are common to mankind make but a
shadowy consideration in comparison to the demands of the individual
soul. Food is almost the first pre-requisite; and yet a high character
will go without food to the ruin and death of the body rather than gain
it in a manner which the spirit disavows. Pascal laid aside mathematics;
Origen doctored his body with a knife; every day some one is thus
mortifying his dearest interests and desires, and, in Christ's words,
entering maim into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is to supersede the
lesser and less harmonious affections by renunciation; and though by
this ascetic path we may get to heaven, we cannot get thither a whole
and perfect man. But there is another way, to supersede them by
reconciliation, in which the soul and all the faculties and senses
pursue a common route and share in one desire. Thus, man is tormented by
a very imperious physical desire; it spoils his rest, it is not to be
denied; the doctors will tell you, not I, how it is a physical need,
like the want of food or slumber. In the satisfaction of this desire, as
it first appears, the soul sparingly takes part; nay, it oft unsparingly
regrets and disapproves the satisfaction. But let the man learn to love
a woman as far as he is capable of love; and for this random affection
of the body there is substituted a steady determination, a consent of
all his powers and facu