. And what is the most special
peculiarity of man? Is it not that he alone of creation is a son,
with a Father to love and to obey? Then must not the ideal man be a
son also? And last, but not least, is it not the very property of
man that he is a spirit invested with flesh and blood? Then must
not the ideal man have, once at least, taken on himself flesh and
blood also? Else, how could he fulfil his own idea?'

'Yes . . . Yes . . . That thought, too, has glanced through my
mind at moments, like a lightning-flash; till I have envied the old
Greeks their faith in a human Zeus, son of Kronos--a human Phoibos,
son of Zeus. But I could not rest in them. They are noble. But
are they--are any--perfect ideals? The one thing I did, and do, and
will believe, is the one which they do not fulfil--that man is meant
to be the conqueror of the earth, matter, nature, decay, death
itself, and to conquer them, as Bacon says, by obeying them.'

'Hold it fast;--but follow it out, and say boldly, the ideal of
humanity must be one who has conquered nature--one who rules the
universe--one who has vanquished death itself; and conquered them,
as Bacon says, not by violating, but by submitting to them. Have
you never heard of one who is said to have done this? How do you
know that in this ideal which you have seen, you have not seen the
Son--the perfect Man, who died and rose again, and sits for ever
Healer, and Lord, and Ruler of the universe? . . . Stay--do not
answer me. Have you not, besides, had dreams of an all-Father--from
whom, in some mysterious way, all things and beings must derive
their source, and that Son--if my theory be true--among the rest,
and above all the rest?'

'Who has not? But what more dim or distant--more drearily,
hopelessly notional, than that thought?'

'Only the thought that there is none. But the dreariness was only
in your own inconsistency. If He be the Father of all, He must be
the Father of persons--He Himself therefore a Person. He must be
the Father of all in whom dwell personal qualities, power, wisdom,
creative energy, love, justice, pity. Can He be their Father,
unless all these very qualities are infinitely His? Does He now
look so terrible to you?'

'I have had this dream, too; but I turned away from it in dread.'

'Doubtless you did. Some day you will know why. Does that former
dream of a human Son relieve this dream of none of its awfulne