he
old fixed way.

As soon as this great step upwards is once made, all or almost all, the
higher gifts and graces of humanity have a rapid and a definite effect
on 'verifiable progress'--on progress in the narrowest, because in the
most universally admitted sense of the term. Success in life, then,
depends, as we have seen, more than anything else on 'animated
moderation,' on a certain combination of energy of mind and balance of
mind, hard to attain and harder to keep. And this subtle excellence is
aided by all the finer graces of humanity. It is a matter of common
observation that, though often separated, fine taste and fine judgment
go very much together, and especially that a man with gross want of
taste, though he may act sensibly and correctly for a while, is yet apt
to break out, sooner or later, into gross practical error. In
metaphysics, probably both taste and judgment involve what is termed
'poise of mind,' that is the power of true passiveness--the faculty of
'waiting' till the stream of impressions, whether those of life or
those of art have done all that they have to do, and cut their full
type plainly upon the mind. The ill-judging and the untasteful are both
over-eager; both move too quick and blur the image. In this way the
union between a subtle sense of beauty and a subtle discretion in
conduct is a natural one, because it rests on the common possession of
a fine power, though, in matter of fact, that union may be often
disturbed. A complex sea of forces and passions troubles men in life
and action, which in the calmer region of art are hardly to be felt at
all. And, therefore, the cultivation of a fine taste tends to promote
the function of a fine judgment, which is a main help in the complex
world of civilised existence. Just so too the manner in which the more
delicate parts of religion daily work in producing that 'moderation'
which, upon the whole, and as a rule, is essential to long success,
defining success even in its most narrow and mundane way, might be
worked out in a hundred cases, though it would not suit these pages.
Many of the finer intellectual tastes have a similar restraining effect
they prevent, or tend to prevent, a greedy voracity after the good
things of life, which makes both men and nations in excessive haste to
be rich and famous, often makes them do too much and do it ill, and so
often leaves them at last without money and without respect.

But there is no need to expand