iveness of the spirit should always alternate
equitably with the terrible strivings of the will. For the dervish who
whirls himself into a foaming ecstasy of devotion and the strenuous
American who works himself up to a sweating ecstasy of gain, are the
two poles of the same absurdity, the two ends of one evil. Indeed, to
my way of thinking, the man on the Stock Exchange and the demagogue on
the stump, for instance, are brothers to the blatant corybant."

CHAPTER III

THE SELF ECSTATIC

To graft the strenuosity of Europe and America upon the ease of the
Orient, the materialism of the West upon the spirituality of the
East,--this to us seems to be the principal aim of Khalid. But often
in his wanderings and divagations of thought does he give us fresh
proof of the truism that no two opposing elements meet and fuse
without both losing their original identity. You may place the bit of
contentment in the mouth of ambition, so to speak, and jog along in
your sterile course between the vast wheat fields groaning under
the thousand-toothed plough and the gardens of delight swooning
with devotion and sensuality. But cross ambition with contentment and
you get the hinny of indifference or the monster of fatalism. We do
not say that indifference at certain passes of life, and certain
stages, is not healthy, and fatalism not powerful; but both we
believe are factors as potent in commerce and trade as pertinacity and
calculation. "But is there not room in the garden of delight for a
wheat field?" asks Khalid. "Can we not apply the bow to the
telegraph wires of the world and make them the vehicle of music as of
stock quotations? Can we not simplify life as we are simplifying the
machinery of industry? Can we not consecrate its Temple to the
Trinity of Devotion, Art, and Work, or Religion, Romance, and Trade?"

This seems to be the gist of Khalid's gospel. This, through the
labyrinths of doubt and contradiction, is the pinnacle of faith he
would reach. And often in this labyrinthic gloom, where a gleam of
light from some recess of thought or fancy reveals here a Hermit in
his cloister, there an Artist in his studio, below a Nawab in his
orgies, above a Broker on the Stock Exchange, we have paused to ask a
question about these glaring contrarieties in his life and thought.
And always would he make this reply: "I have frequently moved and
removed between extremes; I have often worked and slept in opposing
camps. So, do not