questions of life, and wait serenely
and vigilantly for a response, one, two, ten years, a lifetime, wellnigh
an eternity, if need be, not falling into despondencies and despairing
skepticisms because the universe forbears to babble and tattle its
secret ere yet he half or a thousandth part guesses how deep and holy
that secret is, but quietly, heroically asking and waiting. And toward
this posture of asking the profound and vital words assist us by being
heard,--which is their first eminent use to us.

Secondly, they serve us greatly, when they simply cause a preexisting
community of thought to be mutually recognized. It is much to bring like
to like, brand to brand, believing soul to believing soul. As several
pieces of anthracite coal will together make a powerful heat, but
separately will not burn at all, so in the conjunction of similar faiths
and beliefs there is a wholly new effect; it is not at all the mere sum
of the forces previously in operation, but a pure product of union. "My
confidence in my own belief," said Novalis, "is increased _infinitely_
the moment another shares it with me. The reason is obvious. You and I
have grown up apart, and have never conferred together; our
temperaments, culture, circumstances are different; we have come to have
certain thoughts which seem to us true and deep, but each of us doubts
whether these thoughts may not be due to his peculiarities of mind,
position, and influence. But to-day we come together, and discover,
that, despite these outward diversities in which we are so widely
unlike, our fundamental faiths are one and the same; the same thoughts,
the same beliefs have sprung into life in our separate souls. Instantly
is suggested a unity underlying our divided being, a law of thought
abiding in mind itself,--not merely in your mind or mine, but in the
mind and soul of man. What we arrive at, therefore, is not merely the
sum of you and me, the aggregate of two men's opinions, but the
universal, the absolute, and spiritually necessary. Such is always the
suggestion which spontaneous unity of faith carries with it; hence it
awakens religion, and gives total peace and rest."

But the faiths which are to be capable of these divine embraces must
indeed be spontaneous and native. Hence those who create factitious
unity of creed render these fructifications impossible. If we agree, not
because the absolute soul has uttered in both of us the same word, but
because we have both