re hope enough. The men of our day have developed strange
timidities. The apprehension that the sky will fall--that acme of
absurdity among the fears of our Gallic forefathers--has entered our own
hearts. Does the rain-drop doubt the ocean? the ray mistrust the sun?
Our senile wisdom has arrived at this prodigy. It resembles those testy
old pedagogues whose chief office is to rail at the merry pranks or the
youthful enthusiasms of their pupils. It is time to become little
children once more, to learn again to stand with clasped hands and wide
eyes before the mystery around us; to remember that, in spite of our
knowledge, what we know is but a trifle, and that the world is greater
than our mind, which is well; for being so prodigious, it must hold in
reserve untold resources, and we may allow it some credit without
accusing ourselves of improvidence. Let us not treat it as creditors do
an insolvent debtor: we should fire its courage, relight the sacred
flame of hope. Since the sun still rises, since earth puts forth her
blossoms anew, since the bird builds its nest, and the mother smiles at
her child, let us have the courage to be men, and commit the rest to Him
who has numbered the stars. For my part, I would I might find glowing
words to say to whomsoever has lost heart in these times of disillusion:
Rouse your courage, hope on; he is sure of being least deluded who has
the daring to do that; the most ingenuous hope is nearer truth than the
most rational despair.

* * * * *

Another source of light on the path of human life is goodness. I am not
of those who believe in the natural perfection of man, and teach that
society corrupts him. On the contrary, of all forms of evil, the one
which most dismays me is heredity. But I sometimes ask myself how it is
that this effete and deadly virus of low instincts, of vices inoculated
in the blood, the whole assemblage of disabilities imposed upon us by
the past--how all this has not got the better of us. It must be because
of something else. This other thing is love.

Given the unknown brooding above our heads, our limited intelligence,
the grievous and contradictory enigma of human destiny, falsehood,
hatred, corruption, suffering, death--what can we think, what do? To all
these questions a sublime and mysterious voice has answered: _Love your
fellow-men._ Love must indeed be divine, like faith and hope, since she
cannot die when so many powers are arra