of Christ a
higher range of emotion had been reached than had ever been approached
before; and he saw that spirit, in countless regions, however slowly,
leavening the thought, the instincts of the world. The question then
resolved itself into a practical one. How in his own life was he to
make the serenity, the happiness which he desired, predominate over the
suffering, the discontent to which he was liable? Could it be done by
an effort of mind? His professional life had shown him that activity
had not brought him any peace of mind, principally because the system
which he was bound to serve demanded such immense expense of labour for
purely unprofitable ends. It had not been part of the humble and
necessary work of the world, which must be done by some one, if human
beings are to live at all; it had only been the outcome of the
needlessly elaborate life of a highly organised community. It had
filled his life full of a futile intellectual toil. And then, the
effect upon his own character had been to hamper and stunt his natural
energies. It had given him false ideals and wrong motives.

Looking back at his own life, Hugh saw that ambition, in one form or
another, had poisoned his spirit. He saw that the instinct to gain a
supremacy at the expense of others had been the one serious motive
pressed upon him from first to last; indeed the necessity for moral
control had been really, though not nominally, urged upon him, on the
ground that by yielding to bodily desires he would be likely to
frustrate his visions of success. Only of late had he had any
suspicion of the truth, that gentleness, peacefulness, kindness,
sincerity, quiet toil, activity of body and mind, were the things that
really made life sweet and joyful. Had he learned it too late to be
able to exorcise the demons that had so long harboured in his soul? He
feared so.

But at last, after long pondering, he arrived at his decision, which
was that if indeed this vast and patient Will was in the background of
all, the only way was to follow it, to lean upon it; above all things
not to be distracted by the conventions of society, which, though they
too, in a sense, had their origin in the Will of God, yet were things
to be left behind, to be struggled out of. There might indeed be some
natures to which such things were attractive and satisfying, but Hugh
had no doubt that though they might attract him, they could not satisfy.

And yet over his thou