course. Such a man can never be caught unawares; he is a gentleman in
all emergencies, because he cannot be otherwise than himself, and he
never appears what he is not.

A true man of the world is not of the world primarily, although he
serves the world and is served by it; it is to him always a means to a
higher end,--never an end in itself. It was of true men of the world
that the Lord spoke when He said, "I pray not that Thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the
evil!"

III

From the point of view of good we can see and understand evil, but from
the point of view of evil we can neither see nor understand real
goodness. A man to understand the world must be in the process of
gaining his freedom from its evils. He must be learning to live
according to universal and interior standards, not according to the
standards of a special time, or of the people who happen to be about
him; and, in the process, he will learn that faithfulness to his own
sincere perception of universal truth will lead him eventually into true
harmony with the best in others. We know of only one man in the history
of the world who lived his whole life in a manner consistent with his
highest standards.

The world is a great, well-kept school. No one who believes in
immortality can possibly doubt that the short space of time we are here
is meant for training,--training to prepare us for our work hereafter,
whatever that may be, by doing our work here well. If we start with the
belief that the world is a school, and that we do not want to stay in
the primary class, but that we want to go through all the classes and to
graduate honorably,--if that conviction is strong in our minds, it is
astonishing to realize what a new aspect life will have for us. In
general and in every detail life will be full of living interest. No
trouble will be too hard to bear; there will be no circumstances that we
would run away from. We shall want to learn all our lessons, to pass all
our examinations, and to get the living power for use to others which is
the logical result.

To love his neighbor as himself, a man must be able truly to sympathize
with his neighbor and to see through his neighbor's eyes. By this I do
not mean that the neighbor's point of view must be his own, but that he
should be able to understand it as if it were his own. If a man does
this, he can understand the wrong or the right of it much mor