n it hazily that day
the old Colonel spoke of our Youth and our High Calling.

And now Monty set the vision in front of me. I was to see three
ideals, Goodness, Truth, and Beauty, and merge them all in one
vision--Beauty. For Goodness was only beauty in morals, and Truth
was only beauty in knowledge. And I was to overcome my sins, not by
negatively fighting against them when they were hard upon me, but by
positively pursuing in the long days free from temptation my goal of
Beauty. Then the things which I had confessed would gradually drop
out of my life, as things which did not fit in with my ideal. For
they were not good, nor true, nor beautiful.

"Pursue Beauty," he said, "like the Holy Grail."

With my head still bowed in my hands, I felt that happiness which
comes upon men when they grasp a great idea. I felt lofty resolution
and serene confidence flowing into me like wine.

"And, finally," said this masterly priest, "know how certain you can
be that the absolution which I am going to pronounce is full and
final. God only asks a true penitence, and you can offer Him no
fairer fruits of penitence than those you have brought this morning.
Know, then, that there will be no whiter soul in all God's church
than yours, when you leave this room. For you will be as white as
when you left the baptismal font. Now listen. You shall hear what
was worked for you on Calvary."

I listened, and heard him speak with studied solemnity the words of
absolution. And if a feeling can be said to grow up and get older,
then there came upon me at that moment the feeling of a child
released to play in the sunlight; only it was that feeling grown to
a man's estate.

I rose from my knees to find that I was standing again in the world.
I saw a ship's cabin, and a man removing a violet stole from a white
surplice. It didn't seem a time in which to talk, so I turned the
handle of the cabin door, and went out quietly.

I went straight to my Submarine Watch on the deck. There was a glow
pervading me, as of something pleasant which had just occurred.
Forgive me if it be weak to have these fleeting moments of
exaltation, but I was seeing goodness, truth, and beauty in
everything. The bright sunlight was beauty; of course it was; the
blue sea was beauty. And it all had something to do with beauty of
character and beauty of life.

Imagine me this rare day, lost in my thoughts, as I watched the sea
running by, or the new world coming to meet