ery, this investigation, was tending. The
investigation, worthless and minute enough in itself, as it seemed to
be when examined at a single point, had at least this value, that some
principle, some inspiration for life could be extracted from it,
something which would permeate slowly the thought of the world, set
pulses beating, kindle generous visions, and teach men ultimately the
lesson that, once learnt, puts life into a different plane, the lesson
that God is behind and over and in all things, and that it is His
purpose and not our own that is growing and ripening.

This mighty truth came home to Hugh that quiet afternoon with a
luminous certitude, a vast increase of hopefulness such as he had
seldom experienced before. But the thought in its infinite width
narrowed itself like a great stream that passes through a tiny sluice;
and Hugh saw what his own life was to be; that he must no longer form
plans and schemes, battle with uncongenial conditions, make foolish and
fretful efforts in directions in which he had no real strength or
force; but that his only vocation must lie in faithfully and simply
interpreting to himself and others this gigantic truth: the truth,
namely, that no one ought ever to indulge in gloomy doubts and
questionings about what his work in the world was to be, but that men
and women alike ought just to advance, quietly and joyfully, upon the
path so surely, so inevitably indicated to them. The more, he saw,
that one listens to this inner voice, the more securely does the
prospect open; by labour, not by fretful performance of disagreeable
duty, but by eager obedience to the constraining impulse, is the march
of the world accomplished. For some the path is quiet and joyful, for
some it is noisy and busy, for some it is dreary and painful; for some
it is even what we call selfish, cruel, and vile. But we must advance
along it whether we will or no. And it became clear to Hugh that the
more simply and clearly we feel this, the more will all the darker
elements of life drop away from the souls of men; for the darker
elements, the delays, the sorrows, the errors, are in vast measure the
shadows that come from our believing that it is we who cause and
originate, that our efforts and energies are valuable and useful. They
are both, when God is behind them; but when we strive to make them our
own, then their pettiness and insignificance are revealed.

It must not be said that Hugh never fell fr