that their feelings
consisted of pity for the weak figure and admiration for the strong one,
and that the suggestiveness of the whole arose from its satisfying the
artistic sense of balance which requires a compensation of this sort.
But which of the two figures in the picture would they themselves prefer
to be? Surely not the weak one needing help, but the strong one giving
it. By itself the weak figure only stirs our pity and not our
admiration. Its form may be beautiful, but its very beauty only serves
to enhance the sense of something wanting--and the something wanting is
strength. The attraction which the doctrine of passive resignation
possesses for certain minds is based upon an appeal to sentiment, which
is accepted without any suspicion that the sentiment appealed to is a
false one.

Now the healthful influence of the movement known as "The Higher
Thought" consists precisely in this--that it sets itself rigorously to
combat this debilitating doctrine of submission. It can see as well as
others the beauty of weakness leaning upon strength; but it sees that
the real source of the beauty lies in the strong element of the
combination. The true beauty consists in the power to confer strength,
and this power is not to be acquired by submission, but by the exactly
opposite method of continually asserting our determination not to
submit.

Of course, if we take it for granted that all the sorrow, sickness,
pain, trouble, and other adversity in the world is the expression of the
will of God, then doubtless we must resign ourselves to the inevitable
with all the submission we can command, and comfort ourselves with the
vague hope that somehow in some far-off future we shall find that

"Good is the final goal of ill,"

though even _this_ vague hope is a protest against the very submission
we are endeavouring to exercise. But to make the assumption that the
evil of life is the will of God is to assume what a careful and
intelligent study of the laws of the universe, both mental and physical,
will show us is not the truth; and if we turn to that Book which
contains the fullest delineation of these universal laws, we shall find
nothing taught more clearly than that submission to the evils of life is
not submission to the will of God. We are told that Christ was
manifested for this end, that he should destroy him that hath the power
of death--that is, the devil. Now death is the very culmination of the
Negative. It i