ts the practical life an
interruption. It is therefore only melancholy cheer, a forlorn ark with
nine souls on the brine, a refuge from the world, not a delight of the
world. It lives not from God who is, but from a God who should be. The
true creative power is a calm of battle, a trust not for the closet, but
the chariot, a torch that can be carried through the gusty market, a
Ramadhan in the street. It is no miracle to be calm in calm, to be quiet
in bed,--but to rule and lead without anxiety, to tame the beasts and
elements, to build and unbuild cities with a song. The great thought
returns on society, floods out the heaped rubbish of custom, pours the
old grandeurs of Nature through dry channels of Trade, Religion,
Courtesy, and Art. He is great who plays the game of life with decision,
yet is always retired, and holds the life of life in reserve. Such a man
is demiurgic, for he puts down a hand on action through the sky.

From a happy or sufficient genius came the golden maxim, "Think of
living." Strong men love life. The system, so cheery and severe, seems
to them worthy to be continued yonder and without end. This day leading
a better, itself good not leading alone,--this presentiment,--this solid
increment of hard-won power,--of what other stuff should our eternity be
woven? In wisdom first appears the present tense, an hour which is not
mere transition, but something for itself. There are men who live--to
live. He who finds our destiny given beforehand in the nature of things
has the leisure of God: he has not only all the time that is, but spaces
beyond, so that he will not be hurried by the falling-off of Time.
Leisure is a regard fixed not on the nearest trees and fences as we
whirl through this changing scene, but on remoter and larger objects, on
the slow-revolving circle of the far hills, on the quiet stars. Why
should I hasten with my foolish plan? Prosperity is over all, not in my
foolish plan. What is a fortune, a reputation,--what even genuine
influence, if you consider the future of one or of the race? Only little
aims bring care. Why run after success? That is success which follows:
success should be cosmic, a new creation, not any trick or feat. To be
man is the only success. For this we lie back grandly with total
application to the cause. Why run after knowledge? A large mind circles
all the primal facts from its own stand-point, and needs never tread the
curious round of science, history, and art