s as abstractions, and whose personality demands a quasi-
materialism which it baffles the imagination to realise. They keep their
opinions, however, greatly to themselves, inasmuch as most of their
countrymen feel strongly about the gods, and they hold it wrong to give
pain, unless for some greater good than seems likely to arise from their
plain speaking.

On the other hand, surely those whose own minds are clear about any given
matter (even though it be only that there is little certainty) should go
so far towards imparting that clearness to others, as to say openly what
they think and why they think it, whenever they can properly do so; for
they may be sure that they owe their own clearness almost entirely to the
fact that others have done this by them: after all, they may be mistaken,
and if so, it is for their own and the general well-being that they
should let their error be seen as distinctly as possible, so that it may
be more easily refuted. I own, therefore, that on this one point I
disapproved of the practice even of the highest Ydgrunites, and objected
to it all the more because I knew that I should find my own future task
more easy if the high Ydgrunites had already undermined the belief which
is supposed to prevail at present.

In other respects they were more like the best class of Englishmen than
any whom I have seen in other countries. I should have liked to have
persuaded half-a-dozen of them to come over to England and go upon the
stage, for they had most of them a keen sense of humour and a taste for
acting: they would be of great use to us. The example of a real
gentleman is, if I may say so without profanity, the best of all gospels;
such a man upon the stage becomes a potent humanising influence, an Ideal
which all may look upon for a shilling.

I always liked and admired these men, and although I could not help
deeply regretting their certain ultimate perdition (for they had no sense
of a hereafter, and their only religion was that of self-respect and
consideration for other people), I never dared to take so great a liberty
with them as to attempt to put them in possession of my own religious
convictions, in spite of my knowing that they were the only ones which
could make them really good and happy, either here or hereafter. I did
try sometimes, being impelled to do so by a strong sense of duty, and by
my deep regret that so much that was admirable should be doomed to ages
if not eternit