in England, with their wretched dinner-parties,
and attempts at gaiety, where all is hollow and miserable."

Then there was a higher reason. He found that such society interfered
with his spiritual life. He says, in three distinct letters:--

"Getting quiet does one good; it is impossible to hear God's voice
in a whirl of visits. You must be more or less in the desert, to
use the scales of the Sanctuary, to see and weigh the true value of
things and sayings."

"We have no conception or idea of what God will show us, if we
persevere in seeking Him; and it is He who puts this wish into our
hearts. All I can say to you is: Persevere; avoid the world and its
poor wretched little talk about others; never mind being thought
stupid; look on everything with regard to the great day, and trust
Him implicitly."

"Christ must _actually die_, not come _very near_ death; and so
must we, if we would rise. I once thought it possible to bargain
with Christ; to say, I will give up half of my desire of the world,
and gain, in the gap, a corresponding measure of Christ. It was no
good: I lost the half, but did not get the measure filled. Then I
tried to give up a little more, but with the same result; now I
think God has shown me that it is not the least use trying these
subtle bargains; that the giving up little by little is more
wearisome and trying than _one_ surrender, and _that_ I trust He
will give me power to make."

Another reason, doubtless, why he shunned fashionable society was his
extreme sensitiveness to praise. His honest, straightforward nature
could not tolerate the praise that so often is showered upon great men.
He used to say:--

"If a man speaks well of me, divide it by millions and then it will
be millions of times too favourable. If a man speaks evil of me,
multiply it by millions and it will be millions of times too
favourable. Man is disguised, as far as his neighbour is concerned;
this disguise is his outward goodness. Some have it in a slight
measure torn off in this life, and are judged accordingly by those
whose disguise of goodness is more intact; the revelation of the
evil by this partial tearing off is but the manifestation of what
exists. Whether the disguise is torn or intact, the interior and
true state (known to God quite clearly) is the same corrupt thing;
the eye of the