he intervening hours in
one unceasing rush does not know the meaning of life; whereas the
farmer who goes slowly and steadily along the track of the hours, or
the student who devotes only a portion of his time to his books and
spends the rest in recreation, or the business man who declines to
sacrifice himself upon the altar of Mammon--these men live. And it is
the man who lives who benefits his fellows. To visit the sick, to
clothe the naked, to dole out sympathy and charity to the poor is noble
work, but it is not necessarily the most effective way of helping them.
The man who sits down to study the problem of prevention--the root
causes of misery and injustice--and who discovers and publishes the
remedy, is the truer and more valuable friend, though he never enter a
slum or do volunteer work in a soup kitchen."

"And whilst we are diagnosing the conditions rather than the case the
patient dies," said the vicar's wife. "We stop our sick visiting and
our soup kitchens, and bid the people suffer and starve in patience
whilst we retire into our studies to theorise over causes."

"To refer to your illustration of a moment ago, my dear madam, the
battle need not stop because one or two men of insight retire to serve
their country by studying maps and tactics. We need not chain up the
Good Samaritan, but we shall be of far greater service to humanity if,
instead of forming a league for the supply of oil and wine and
plasters, we inaugurate measures to clear the road of robbers. 'This
ought ye to do and not to leave the other undone.'"

"You admit, then, that some may find their opportunity of service in
work of this baser sort?"

"No work is base which is done with a pure motive and done well. All I
contend for is that when instinct bids any of us withdraw for a time,
or even altogether, it is wise to trust our instincts. If Miss Holden
had devoted herself to a life of pleasure and selfish isolation she
might have been charged with cowardly flight from duty. We all know
she has done nothing of the kind, and therefore I say her intuition was
trustworthy, and she must not accuse herself of selfishness."

"I agree with all my heart," said the vicar's wife; "but the problems
which she left unsolved are no nearer solution."

"How do you know that?" he asked. "The war may be nearer its end
because your unheroic soldier sheathed his sword and put on his
thinking-cap. That unsoldier-like action may have saved the li