ewards or punishes, here below or elsewhere, in accordance
with the laws of our consciousness or with other laws that we shall
some day admit; and, finally, though between man and man, in other
words, in our relations with our fellows, our admirable desire for
equity translate itself into a justice that is always incomplete, at
the mercy of every error of reason, of every ambush laid by personal
interest, and of all the evil habits of a social condition that still
is sub-human, it is none the less certain that an image of that
invisible and incorruptible justice, which we have vainly sought in the
sky or the universe, reposes in the depths of the moral life of every
man. And though its method of action be such as to cause it to pass
unperceived of most of our fellows, often even of our own
consciousness, though all that it does be hidden and intangible, it is
none the less profoundly human and profoundly real. It would seem to
hear, to examine, all that we say and think and strive for in our
exterior life; and if it find a little sincerity beneath, a little
earnest desire for good, it will transform these into moral forces that
shall extend and illumine our inner life, and help us to better
thoughts, better speech, better endeavour in the time to come. It will
not add to, or take from, our wealth; it will bring no immunity from
disease or from lightning; it will not prolong by one hour the life of
the being we cherish; but if we have learned to reflect and to love,
if, in other words, heart and brain have both done their duty, it will
establish in heart and brain a contentment that, though perhaps
stripped of illusion, shall still be inexhaustible and noble; it will
confer a dignity of existence, and an intelligence, that shall suffice
to sustain our life after the loss of our wealth, after the stroke of
disease or of lightning has fallen, after the loved one has for ever
quitted our arms. A good thought or deed brings a reward to our heart
that it cannot, in the absence of an universal judge of nature, extend
to the things around. It endeavours to create within us the happiness
it is unable to produce in our material life. Denied all external
outlet, it fills our soul the more. It prepares the space that soon
shall be required by our developing intellect, our expanding peace and
love. Helpless against the laws of nature, it is all-powerful over
those that govern the happy equilibrium of human consciousness. And