form, petty ideas in the valley
fall short of a certain elevation, no great idea shall spring to life
on the mountain-peak. Down there the thought may have little strength,
but there are countless numbers who think it; and the influence this
thought acquires may be almost termed atmospheric. And they up above
on the mountain, the precipice, the edge of the glacier, will be helped
by this influence, or harmed, in the degree of its brightness or gloom,
of its reaching them, buoyed up with generous feeling, or heavily
charged with brutal habit and coarse desire. The heroic action of a
people (as, for instance, the French Revolution, the Reformation, all
wars of independence and liberation) will fertilise and purify this
people for more centuries than one. But far less will satisfy those
who toil at the fulfilment of destiny. Let but the habits of the men
round about them become a little more noble, their desires a little
more disinterested; let but their passions and eagerness, their
pleasures and love, be illumined by one ray of brightness, of grace, of
spiritual fervour; and those up above will feel the support, and draw
their breath freely, no longer compelled to struggle with the
instinctive part of themselves; and the power that is in them will obey
the more readily, and mould itself to their hand. The peasant who,
instead of carousing at the beershop, spends a peaceful Sunday at home,
with a book, beneath the trees of his orchard; the humble citizen whom
the emotions or din of the racecourse cannot tempt from some worthy
enjoyment, from the pleasure of a reposeful afternoon; the workman who
no longer makes the streets hideous with obscene or ridiculous song,
but wanders forth into the country, or, from the ramparts, watches the
sunset--all these bring their meed of help: their great assistance,
unconscious though it be, and anonymous, to the triumph of the vast
human flame.

5

But how much there is to be done, and learned, before this great flame
can arise in serene, secure brightness! We have said that man, in his
relation to matter, is still in the experimental, groping stage of his
earliest days. He lacks even definite knowledge as to the kind of food
best adapted for him, or the quantity of nourishment he requires; he is
still uncertain as to whether he be carnivorous or frugivorous. His
intellect misleads his instinct. It was only yesterday that he learned
that he had probably erred hitherto in th