ed to justify myself further,
I would only add that since I began to write on such subjects I have
received a large number of letters from unknown people, who seem to be
grateful to any one who will attempt to speak frankly on these matters,
with the earnest desire, which I can honestly say has never been absent
from my mind, to elucidate and confirm a belief in simple and essential
religious principles.

And now I would go on to say a few words as to the larger object which I
have had in view. My aim has been to show how it is possible for people
living quiet and humdrum lives, without any opportunities of gratifying
ambition or for taking a leading part on the stage of the world, to make
the most of simple conditions, and to live lives of dignity and joy.
My own belief is that what is commonly called success has an insidious
power of poisoning the clear springs of life; because people who grow
to depend upon the stimulus of success sink into dreariness and dulness
when that stimulus is withdrawn. Here my critics have found fault with
me for not being more strenuous, more virile, more energetic. It is
strange to me that my object can have been so singularly misunderstood.
I believe, with all my heart, that happiness depends upon strenuous
energy; but I think that this energy ought to be expended upon work, and
everyday life, and relations with others, and the accessible pleasures
of literature and art. The gospel that I detest is the gospel of
success, the teaching that every one ought to be discontented with his
setting, that a man ought to get to the front, clear a space round him,
eat, drink, make love, cry, strive, and fight. It is all to be at the
expense of feebler people. That is a detestable ideal, because it is
the gospel of tyranny rather than the gospel of equality. It is obvious,
too, that such success depends upon a man being stronger than his
fellows, and is only made possible by shoving and hectoring, and
bullying the weak. The preaching of this violent gospel has done us
already grievous harm; it is this which has tended to depopulate country
districts, to make people averse to discharging all honest subordinate
tasks, to make men and women overvalue excitement and amusement. The
result of it is the lowest kind of democratic sentiment, which says,
"Every one is as good as every one else, and I am a little better," and
the jealous spirit, which says, "If I cannot be prominent, I will do
my best that no o