c comes tripping down from the
minstrels' gallery, the dim chapel for prayer, and the chamber called
_Peace_--where the pilgrim slept till break of day, "and then he awoke
and sang"; but there is also the well-lighted hall, with cheerful
company coming and going; where we must put our secluded, wistful,
sorrowful thought aside, and mingle briskly with the pleasant throng,
not steeling ourselves to mirth and movement, but simply glad and
grateful to be there.

It was while I was writing these pages that a friend told me that he
had recently met a man, a merchant, I think, who did me the honour to
discuss my writings at a party and to pronounce an opinion upon them.
He said that I wrote many things which I did not believe, and then
stood aside, and was amused in a humorous mood to see that other
people believed them. It would be absurd to be, or even to feel,
indignant at such a travesty of my purpose as this, and indeed I think
that one is never very indignant at misrepresentation unless one's
mind accuses itself of its being true or partially true.

It is indeed true that I have said things about which I have since
changed my mind, as indeed I hope I shall continue to change it, and
as swiftly as possible, if I see that the former opinions are not
justified. To be thus criticised is, I think, the perfectly natural
penalty of having tried to be serious without being also solemn; there
are many people, and many of them very worthy people, like our friend
the merchant, who cannot believe one is in earnest if one is not also
heavy-handed. Earnestness is mixed up in their minds with bawling and
sweating; and indeed it is quite true that most people who are willing
to bawl and sweat in public, feel earnestly about the subjects to
which they thus address themselves. But I do not see that earnestness
is in the least incompatible with lightness of touch and even with
humour, though I have sometimes been accused of displaying none.
Socrates was in earnest about his ideas, but the penalty he paid for
treating them lightly was that he was put to death for being so
sceptical. I should not at all like the idea of being put to death for
my ideas; but I am wholly in earnest about them, and have never
consciously said anything in which I did not believe.

But I will go one step further and say that I think that many earnest
men do great harm to the causes they advocate, because they treat
ideas so heavily, and divest them of their ch