T. It is no use
theorising about it, and providing elegant remedies which will not
touch the evil. What one requires to know is what those natures, who
lie buried in this weltering tide, and are dissatisfied and tormented
by it, really desire. It is no use trying to provide a paradise on the
farther bank of the river, till we have constructed bridges to cross
the gulf. What one wants is that some one from the darkness of the
other side should speak articulately and boldly what they claim, what
they could use. It is not enough to have a wistful cry for help ringing
in our ears; one wants a philosophical or statesmanlike demand--just
the very thing which from the nature of the case we cannot get. It may
be that education will make this possible; but at present education
seems merely to be a ladder let down into the abyss, by which a few
stronger natures can climb out of it, with horror and contempt in their
hearts of what they have left behind. The question that stares one in
the face is, is there honest work for all to do, if all were strong and
virtuous? The answer at present seems to be in the negative; and the
problem seems to be solved only by the fact that all are not capable of
honest work, and that the weaklings give the strong their opportunity.
What, again, one asks oneself, is the use of contriving more leisure
for those who could not use it well? Then, too, under present
conditions, the survival of the unfittest seems to be assured. Those
breed most freely and recklessly of whom it may be said that, for the
interests of civilisation, it is least desirable that they should
perpetuate their kind. The problem too is so complicated, that it
requires a gigantic faith in a reformer to suggest the sowing of seed
of which he can never hope to see the fruit. The situation is one which
tends to develop vehement and passionate prophets, dealing in vague and
remote generalisations, when what one needs is practical prudence, and
the effective power of foreseeing contingencies. One who like myself
loves security, leisure, beauty and peace, and is actuated by a vague
and benevolent wish that all should have the same opportunities as
myself, feels himself a mere sentimentalist in the matter, without a
single effective quality. I can see the problem, I can grieve over it,
I can feel my faith in God totter under the weight of it, but that is
all.

July 15, 1889.

One of the hardest things to face in the world is the grim