wn back upon the prisoner intensified and multiplied. The wall is
real enough in its effect, but will cease to exist when the prisoner
begins to go outside, when he begins to realize his selfishness and his
mistake. Then the noises and the irritations will be lost in the wider
world that is open to him. After all, it is only through unselfish
service in the world of men that this broadening can come.

There is no lack of opportunity for service. Perhaps the simplest and
most available form of service is charity,--the big, professional kind,
of course,--and beyond that the greater field of intimate and personal
charity. I know a girl of talent and ability--herself a nervous
invalid--sick and helpless for the lack of a little money which would
give her a chance to get well. I do not mean money for luxuries, for
foolish indulgences, but money to buy opportunity--money that would lift
her out of the heavy morass of poverty and give her a chance. She falls
outside the beaten path of charity. She is not reached by the usual
philanthropies. I also know plenty of people who could help that girl
without great sacrifice. They will not do it because they give money to
the regular charities--they will not do it because sometimes generosity
has been abused. So they miss the chance of broadening and developing
their own lives.

I know well enough that objective interest can rarely be forced--it
must usually come the other way about--through the broadening of life
which makes it inevitable. Sometimes I wish I could force that kind of
development, that kind of charity. Sometimes I long to take the rich
neurasthenic and make him help his brother, make him develop a new art
that shall save people from sorrow and loss. We are all together in this
world, and all kin; to recognize it and to serve the needs of the
unfortunate as we would serve our own children is the remedy for many
ills. It is the new art, the final and greatest of all artistic
achievements; it warms our hearts and opens our lives to all that is
wholesome and good. This is one of the crises in which my theory of
"inspiration first" may fail. Here the charity may have to come first,
may have to be insisted upon before there can be any inspiration or any
further joy in life. It is not always charity in the usual sense that is
required; sometimes the charity that gives something besides money is
best. But charity in any good sense means self-forgetfulness, and that
is a long