may believe that there is a God, or that there is no God;
that all ends in this world, or that it is prolonged into the next;
that all is matter, or that all is spirit. He will believe these things
much as wise men believe them; but do you think his manner of belief
can be the same? To look fearlessly upon life; to accept the laws of
nature, not with meek resignation, but as her sons, who dare to search
and question; to have peace and confidence within our soul--these are
the beliefs that make for happiness. But to believe is not enough; all
depends on how we believe. I may believe that there is no God, that I
am self-contained, that my brief sojourn here serves no purpose; that
in the economy of this world without limit my existence counts for as
little as the evanescent hue of a flower--I may believe all this, in a
deeply religious spirit, with the infinite throbbing within me; you may
believe in one all-powerful God, who cherishes and protects you, yet
your belief may be mean, and petty, and small. I shall be happier than
you, and calmer, if my doubt is greater, and nobler, and more earnest
than is your faith; if it has probed more deeply into my soul,
traversed wider horizons, if there are more things it has loved. And if
the thoughts and feelings on which my doubt reposes have become vaster
and purer than those that support your faith, then shall the God of my
disbelief become mightier and of supremer comfort than the God to whom
you cling. For, indeed, belief and unbelief are mere empty words; not
so the loyalty, the greatness and profoundness of the reasons wherefore
we believe or do not believe.

80. We do not choose these reasons; they are rewards that have to be
earned. Those we have chosen are only slaves we have happened to buy;
and their life is but feeble; they hold themselves shyly aloof, ever
watching for a chance to escape. But the reasons we have deserved stand
faithfully by us; they are so many pensive Antigones, on whose help we
may ever rely. Nor can such reasons as these be forcibly lodged in the
soul; for indeed they must have dwelt there from earliest days, have
spent their childhood there, nourished on our every thought and action;
and tokens recalling a life of devotion and love must surround them on
every side. And as they throw deeper root--as the mists clear away from
our soul and reveal a still wider horizon, so does the horizon of
happiness widen also; for it is only in the space that our