,,lures ,,of ,,life ,,by ,,joseph ,,lucas ,,author ,,of ,,our ,,villa ,,in ,,italy ,t4 ,,fisher ,,unwin1 ,,ltd4 ,,adelphi ,,terrace1 ,,london ,first published 4 4 4 4 ,january1 #aiai4 ,second ,impression 4 4 4 4 ,june1 #aiai4 99,,contents99 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,life',s ,,afterglow ,,ii4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,happiness ,,iii4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,self-,,denial ,,iv4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,magic ,,words ,v4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,an ,,old ,,tuscan ,,garden ,,vi4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,montelupo ,,plate ,,vii4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,pluck ,,viii4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,old ,,furniture ,,ix4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,personality ,x4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,nice ,,people ,,xi4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,democracy ,,xii4 ,,jesus ,,christ ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,ages ,,xiii4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,living ,,word ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,eucharist 99,,lures ,,of ,,life99 99,i99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,life',s ,,afterglow99 ,a friend put me in remembrance that ,i had a birthday recently4 ,birthday emotion with an old man is an extinct crater4 ,when ,i was young a coming birthday set my pulse throbbing to mad music weeks beforehand2 it filled me with delightful anticipations4 ,romance gathered round the happy event4 ,our thoughts tripped capriciously along the primrose paths of the future4 ,i felt myself preordained to greatness4 ,the hoarded treasure held in bond for me was surely there awaiting delivery1 and ,time the magician's wand would wave its largesse into my outstretched eager hands1 and1 clothed in honour1 ,i should ride prosperously all the days of my life4 ,to the youngster starting on the grand tour of life1 the journey is a splendid venture4 ,the cup held to the lips overflows with rich1 ripe1 sparkling liquor2 every draught of it is nectar1 exhilarating the spirits1 expanding the experience1 and discoursing music on every chord of the harp of a thousand strings4 ,it is superb doing1 riding life on a flowing tide when the warm south wind blows1 and the air is redolent with aromatic spices1 when driftwood floats from distant climes1 and shore-birds sail in the central blue signalling that the ,land of ,heart's ,desire will soon be reached4 ,truly youth takes life with a zest of its own4 ,yes1 the birthday is a happy day to the young4 ,you rejoice that you are a year older and of added consequence and stature in the world of men1 and a step nearer realizing the daydreams sweetly dreamed in school1 when the magic of life filled you with wonder and awe4 ,birthday joy increases immensely until the period of ecstatic joy crowns all1 when you score twenty-one years and write yourself down a man4 ,you are no longer a flower in the bud worn in anybody's buttonhole1 but a well-developed plant on your own root growing in the open4 ,when you get twice twenty-one birthday joy cloys on your palate1 and you begin to resent the intrusion of the natal day as an unwelcome guest that you have seen too often4 ,he reminds you that you are growing old and growing older4 ,your friends may crown the day with roses and toast you at the evening dinner in your best champagne let loose for the occasion1 but the obvious remains1 and your response to their unblushing flattery is not gushing as of yore4 ,you tire of birthday greetings and birthday festivities2 your vivacity flags2 your digestion suffers4 ,the thoughts that adorn the occasion are chiefly reminiscent1 for the horizon of the future is narrowing down and leaves less space for ,fancy in which to fly her kite4 ,when ,i had covered my half-century a curious feeling like an electric shock chased along every fibre of my being on facing the cold1 hard fact for the first time2 ,i had grown old1 and done it surreptitiously4 ,time glides smoothly1 silently1 swiftly1 and startled as from a deep sleep1 one marvels at the hot haste of the rolling years4 ,you dread nearing the vortex of the great unknown to which we all inevitably steer1 and finally sink beneath its swirling surface4 ,the outlook is disturbing4 ,can't you put down the brake and gentle the pace8 ,will no opiate drug ,time into forgetfulness8 ,you try the rejuvenating influences of ,mrs4 ,allen's ,hair ,restorer1 but nothing happens4 ,the bald spot on the crown of your head increases in baldness and shining splendour4 ,the longer you watch it1 the larger it grows4 ,time baffles your artful devices1 smiles at your wild alarms1 and drives from you the crimson days of youth1 with their vigour and vivacity1 leaving in your possession a feeling of comfortable lethargy which solidifies into pacific blissfulness4 ,insensibly a change has passed over you with the mounting years4 ,how the change wrought you do not know4 ,where you crossed the frontier which in the twinkling of an eye ranked you amongst the elders you cannot say4 ,who can tell the moment when summer ends and autumn commences8 ,who can cut a clean cleavage between afternoon and evening hours8 ,however1 you settle down to an old man's pleasures4 ,you dislike being hustled after dinner4 ,you prefer a quiet rubber at ,bridge in a cosy room1 with shaded lights1 and a silent cigar with cronies of a choice1 familiar brand as playmates4 ,you prefer it to strenuously dancing in a stuffy1 glaring ball-room till morning hours chase the stale and weary dancers to their homes4 ,it is too fatiguing an amusement to make pleasure for you1 as there is no new romance to be looked for after fifty4 ,anticipation at your ripe age is wasted stimulant4 ,boys dream of the future1 old men live in the present4 ,youth1 once upon a time1 was an asset held in hand1 a rich inheritance to be proud of1 but now the treasury of youth is spent to the last coin and only the empty coffer remains1 a memento of the vanished wealth of early days4 ,you are a middle-aged man aged fifty1 and you settle down to it solidly and squarely and comfortably4 ,you will never be young and flippant again this side the harbour-bar4 ,as we steer cautiously into the sixties and face the grand climacteric1 life grows pensive4 ,sober reflections automatically cast their lengthening shadows over us4 ,we have drunk copiously of the wine of life1 and are now coming to the dregs of the bottle4 ,we get moody4 ,meridian sunshine has not fructified the promise of youth as we appointed it4 ,lean years have eaten up years of plenty4 ,we have gathered tares with the wheat which brought disappointment into the storehouse4 ,varied experiences have chequered life with cross lights and shadows4 ,the grand ideals of sanguine youth have dissolved like dreams at daybreak1 and instead of the great achievement ours is the common lot4 ,rates and taxes are hardy annuals that flourish undisturbed amidst the ruins4 ,are we downhearted because the romance of life has fizzled out like spent fireworks and left us in darkness8 ,we did not expect to finish up in obscurity4 ,are we downhearted8 ,no2 after the struggle and stress of conflict we get our second breath2 and the calm of age overtakes us4 ,the halcyon hours set in to cheer us4 ,i now move airily along the line of least resistance1 and this brings tranquillity of mind in my advancing years4 ,we are no longer broody4 ,experience breaks one in gently to the monotony of daily routine1 and the collar neither frets nor rubs the shoulder1 for the velvet lining of contentment softens the friction and we trudge along serenely going ,west4 ,everything contributes to make an old man's lot happy if the salt of life has not lost its savour4 ,we have played the game1 and now we watch others take their innings4 ,it is good fun to watch4 ,i tell you it is music to the eye watching the gay young world go its own way4 ,the swagger1 the bravoure1 the buoyancy of its manners1 stagger the dull parental mind4 ,there is rhythm in its movements1 there is character in its gaiety4 ,it tops the record of the far-off days of splendour when we1 their portly ancestors1 were down in the arena beating up the dust of conflict1 and considered ourselves the cream of modernity and the finest goods in the market4 ,the youth of to-day has its hand on the wheel and the joy-car pads merrily1 heedless of speed limits1 for time has no limit and life sings a pleasant song to boys of the new regime4 ,life's afterglow is the period when the past is viewed through the golden haze of memory and we live over again the days of our youth1 the splendid days of hope and promise4 ,pleasant things and pleasant people are remembered1 and disagreeable events that vexed us are forgotten4 ,we wipe clean from the slate memories that are unwelcome4 ,from the mellowy distance we admire the picture in its broad outlines2 its uninteresting details drop out of sight4 ,it is the vivid patches of colour upon the canvas where the eye lingers lovingly and long4 ,it is the happy past that enchants the memory to-day4 ,an old man glances over his shoulder adown the long pathway of receding years hungrily1 and muses to himself1 ,oh1 to be out in the world again as ,i knew it fifty years ago1 with the same sunny people about me2 to meet them on the old familiar footing4 ,we had capacious times together2 we understood one another and loved one another with kindred hearts and flowing speech4 ,i talk with people nowadays1 but these new friends of mine are not responsive4 ,there is a glass screen between us as we talk together2 we sit near one another1 but we are far apart4 ,i catch a far-off glint in their eye which holds me at arm's-length4 ,our lips are restrained1 our thoughts are bottled up4 ,it seems like sitting together in a room with blinds drawn1 talking in the dark4 ,yes2 new friends at best are but amiable strangers1 for we met one another only when the flower of life had wilted and the leaf was sere and yellow on the tree4 ,the full1 unrestrained days when the sap was rising1 the blossoming days of youth1 were lived apart4 ,i do not know these good people intimately1 and ,i never can1 and they can never know me4 ,we each have a buried past which is sacred ground where the other never treads4 ,i met recently a grey-haired man who was a schoolboy friend of mine4 ,a wide sundering gap of years lies between us since our previous meeting1 but at once we grasped hands and knew each other intimately1 although mid-life with each had been filled with a fulness the other knew nothing of4 ,as boys we chummed together1 and now we renewed our ancient friendship on olden lines4 ,we had studied the same lessons1 slept in the same dormitory1 sculled in the same boat1 fought in the same playground scrimmages1 and1 having met again after long intervening years1 we had endless youthful reminiscences in common to discuss and life-histories to relate4 ,there was no need to sit on the safety-valve to throttle down the conversation4 ,talk came1 a flowing stream bubbling up from the hot springs of the heart4 ,our meeting had the perfume of romance clinging to it1 which made golden the precious hours in the spending4 ,two grey-haired men chattering with their heads together for the nonce were merry schoolboys4 ,the present was forgotten2 the past was everything to them while the old enthusiasms flared up brightly and shot a warm rosy afterglow athwart life's pleasant evening hour4 ,loafing is a privilege of one's declining years4 ,it is an agreeable form of laziness which sits well upon old shoulders4 ,it is that mellow state of stagnant content which pervades the mind when the natural force abates4 ,i do not extol it as a virtue1 ,i claim it as a privilege4 ,it helps to fill gaps in the daily round when business no longer engages your attention and office hours are a dread ordeal done with for ever4 ,having dropped out of the marching line and become a spectator of the passing show1 what more natural than that you manifest a livelier curiosity in other people's activities than in your own sluggish movements4 ,i love to spend a sunny morning lingering on the old garden seat1 chatting to a friend1 or watching the energetic youngsters at play amongst the roses4 ,i find it enjoyable to take my pitch on the pierhead with the gay summer crowd ambling along1 passing and repassing my post of observation1 and watch the pretty and well-accoutred girls angling for admiration1 and the budding men in spotless flannels flashing answering glances to catch the lasses' eyes2 an endless conversation going on without voices whispering a word2 they look at each other and laugh1 and the incipient mystery of the thing slips into their blood4 ,i was once reluctant to relinquish youth4 ,its passions and pleasure made my life intensely joyous in a clean1 healthy way4 ,i resented the horrid fact that with encroaching years ,i was no longer able to wake the old thrill of existence by any of the old methods4 ,the call came to me1 but nature responded not to its alluring voice4 ,the spent fires could not be rekindled2 and in a tragic moment the truth stood uncovered in its stark nakedness3 ,i am growing old6 ,i had to readjust my bearings in life to meet the new situation4 ,i found it better to walk in step with the years and melt into middle life with all the gentle conciliations of an easy mind than to clutch at the hem of the garment of departing youth and hold on frantically to a corpse2 and so it came to pass youth1 with its frank1 jovial1 devil-may-care lightheartedness1 was surrendered ground1 and ,i put on a splendid face1 taking up a new position in the rear as an old fogy1 a little moss-grown1 but still alive1 healthy1 happy1 and hearty4 99,,ii99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,happiness99 ,the joy of living is to grasp life in its fullness just as it comes to us clean and sweet from the hand of ,god2 to eat the grapes that grow in our own vineyard2 to feed on the honey captured from our own hives2 and to bask in the sunshine blessing our own garden plot4 ,some people cannot do this4 ,they were born sour and fail to ripen4 ,they remind me of the ,church of ,st4 ,lorenzo at ,florence1 built but never finished1 and showing a dejected mien to the passer-by4 ,they hold on to life timidly with cold and clammy hands1 and smile with glum visage and call it all vanity and vexation of spirit4 ,happiness frets them like a lump of undigested pickle lying heavy on their chest2 they want to throw it off and be at ease in their misery4 ,they consider it wickedness to enjoy things--to wallow in sunshine4 ,they say we ought to content ourselves with bare commodities needful for existence4 ,the primitive man was happy4 ,he had no shirt to wash1 no taxes to pay1 no barns to fill with plenty4 ,we must be primitive to be happy4 ,deplete the wealthy of their wealth2 sink society to a common ground-level 7allow us boots to wear in this muddy climate1 if you please71 and then everyone will be healthy1 happy1 and poor4 ,stepping out of his well-appointed motor-car1 the up-to-date man spurns the primitive craze and blazes forth1 ,is thy servant a dog that he should house in a kennel8 ,surely civilization means creature comfort2 everyone wants something larger than bare necessities to embellish life4 ,the ,creator rears us on finer lines than ,he raises cattle on the marshes4 ,year by year ,he lavishes before our eyes ,nature's prodigal store of ornament4 ,every yard of hedgerow1 those liberal homes of unmarketable beauty1 contradict the crank who would confine us to the needful4 ,the dusty utilitarian sees the world only as a crowded granary1 a chattering marketplace in which to buy and sell and get gain4 ,the ,divine ,artist enriches the picture by painting in exquisitely the flowering hawthorn and fragrant violets1 and by tuning the throat of the skylark to rarest melody2 and concurrently ,he attunes the soul of man1 which thrills appreciation1 and delights in these manifestations of ,sovereign goodness4 ,he not merely appeases the hunger of the human body1 but feeds the rarer appetites of the human mind with radiant viands2 and the more godlike in stature man grows1 the more fully he appreciates ,god-given art and beauty flung like flowers across his pathway4 ,everybody is happy in his own order4 ,the history of many a man's life is the story of a soul's wandering in search of happiness4 ,some people are happy in their misery4 ,even when nursing their spleen they do it comfortably4 ,they dilate on their grief with real zest of morbid enthusiasm that it flings a blazing cheerfulness over their cold grey lives4 ,it sets them purring with sweet content when an auditor listens to their woeful outpourings4 ,this is the cheapest form of happiness1 and reflects an impoverished mind thrown back upon itself4 ,hazlitt1 the essayist1 gently prods these crazy egoists with a sharp pen and says1 ,pure pleasures are in their judgment cloying and insipid2 an ounce of sour is worth a pound of sweet4 ,farquhar1 the lively dramatist1 mocks their folly when portraying the gushing ,lady ,constance1 who1 on finding the miniature of her absent lover lying on the floor1 picks it up and exclaims3 ,now ,i am fitted out for sorrow4 ,with this ,i'll sigh1 with this converse1 gaze on his image till ,i grow blind with weeping4 ,it is the only thing could give me joy1 because it will increase my grief4 ,happiness is a gift of temperament4 ,the occupation that makes one man happy the day long would be capital punishment to another man4 ,i have known people to possess everything and enjoy nothing2 others1 who possess little1 dwell in paradise4 ,it is a braver thing to extract honey from the hive of life than to leave it rotting in the comb4 ,alas6 these weak-kneed1 nervous mortals who are afraid of being too happy3 they tremble as they sit at the banquet4 ,they toy with a lean and hungry fate and dare not clasp a full-bosomed blessing4 ,they prefer misery as a diet1 with a spice of religion thrown in to flavour it4 ,they fancy self-inflicted misery is a virtue to be cultivated1 and a grace to be counted for righteousness4 ,we shrewdly detect in such conduct a pose4 ,it lacks the grace of sincerity4 ,such people1 overfed on misery1 fatten on it incontinently4 ,it is the diet of a low1 melancholy temperament4 ,there is no standard-pattern happiness planned to suit the temperament of everybody like the map of a city which all travellers follow to find their bearings4 ,happiness is a city that each person maps out for himself2 its highways and byways are of his own engineering and grow to match his own requirements4 ,happiness is not a sloppy garment like a ready-made coat that you buy in a store4 ,happiness must be made to fit4 ,in fact1 every man makes his own happiness4 ,we all distil pleasure out of life in our peculiar way4 ,only our ways differ as the poles asunder4 ,one man cannot understand where the other man's relish for life comes in4 ,what is nauseous as bitter herbs in one mouth tastes delicate as the wines of ,orvieto on another palate4 ,a famous ,american millionaire found greater satisfaction in the simple pleasure of attending funerals than in all the superb luxuries which his millions brought him4 ,we do not envy his simple pleasure4 ,it was an innocent method of enjoyment peculiarly his own4 ,i knew a man who made an income of over ,l#aj1jjj a year by hard work1 and his pleasure was immense in doing it4 ,one half of his relaxation in life was making more income1 and the other half his amusement consisted in lecturing people on the evil of extravagance if they spent tuppence on a bus fare instead of walking three-pennyworth of leather off the soles of their boots4 ,he never spent tuppence himself if he could save it4 ,he drove life at high pressure1 and enjoyed the sensations of a quick run4 ,people called him a money-making machine devoid of fine feeling4 ,people made a mistake4 ,his nature was highly strung4 ,he was keenly sensitive to pleasure--the pleasure of money-making4 ,it was the poetry1 the luxury1 the fine art of life all rolled into one1 and it quickened the gay emotions within him that seeing a good play1 hearing an eloquent sermon or driving a spanking four-in-hand to ,ascot on a fine ,june morning1 excites in other people4 ,there are various buttons to press1 but they all send the same thrill of earthly pleasure tingling through the human frame4 ,different hands strike the same chords on the harp of life1 and they tremble into song4 ,some heroically minded people assert there are only two things in life3 duty and happiness4 ,it is not everybody who wants to do his duty--that is a special gift of ,providence few enjoy4 ,but everyone wants to be happy1 and happiness is the greatest thing of all3 other people's happiness as well as our own4 ,we are not all sagacious to discern the angel of duty when she comes mixed in a promiscuous assembly of spirits less honourable than she4 ,they all dress becomingly and smile bewitchingly that you cannot mark her down2 her radiance shines no brighter than other luminous spirits that accompany her4 ,we should try the spirits whether they be good or evil ones4 ,however1 they move first1 and try us with their beauty1 their flattery1 and their gilded promises4 ,according to the gospel of ,st4 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson1 there is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy4 ,a third thing some people suggest makes life worth living is experience4 ,experience1 they maintain1 is a more valuable treasure than happiness2 experience is a pearl of great price1 and we must sell all we have to possess it4 ,the world is spacious2 range it widely1 breathe its bracing airs1 sail its deep seas in search of experience4 ,pursue it1 and if in the pursuit you are blown about by the fickle winds of fate1 the buffeting may be disagreeable1 but it is most exhilarating and healthy to the earnest seeker after experience4 ,provided you are blown1 and blown violently1 the direction of the gale matters not2 the north-easter and the zephyr both teach4 ,experience builds up character and increases knowledge1 though during building operations your wisdom may remain a stationary virtue4 ,if you come out of the conflict with only experience to your credit at the other end of the struggle be thankful4 ,life is very good4 ,its chief spoils may be anguish and sorrow1 yet experience makes it full and rich4 ,the logic of this cold philosophy needs consideration before adopting it as gospel4 ,if a dinted shield and a broken sword are the only spoils you bring home from the wars and hang up in the family parlour as trophies of victory1 it is not an adequate recompense for the rich and vital experience gained in the fight4 ,experience was what ,don ,quixote in the slippered comfort of his home hungered after4 ,it was what he found on his travels1 and after passing through much tribulation it was the one prize he brought home with him at the journey's end4 ,experience many an ambitious man has found to be as an empty goblet to his thirsty lips4 ,when the ,creator was busy in the minting-house ,he did not cast his creatures all in the same mould1 or coin them of the same metal4 ,some people are of fine temperament1 cram full of emotion2 they are all feeling1 and express their feeling vigorously4 ,other people are of baser metal4 ,they are stolid1 and pass through life neither contented nor discontented with their lot2 they are neither happy nor miserable4 ,they are well-regulated clocks running slowly down to the last tick1 and then ceasing to tick at all4 ,monotony is the bane of their existence1 blighting it with double dulness4 ,they feel little and say nothing about it4 ,one never knows what hidden compensations life provides for its multitudinous offspring4 ,these torpid people must have a secret well of satisfaction from which they dip refreshing draughts in thirsty moments4 ,the child of emotion is more vivacious2 he has colour1 romance1 movement4 ,he is of a rarer vintage2 there is sparkle in the wine of life4 ,occasionally the wine turns sour and drops flavour4 ,disagreeable people do exist for some veiled purpose of ,providence1 as the species never becomes extinct in the land4 ,in infancy they were rocked in the cradle of discontent1 and they have seldom slept out of it since4 ,they have grown up in a nursery of their own4 ,they are highly strung1 and have a genius for living in the moment--irritably4 ,their wit is brilliant1 it scintillates like running water in the sunshine1 but it cuts like a razor4 ,everybody within reach of their tongue1 even innocent people1 feel the whip of their capricious temper4 ,i suppose some grim pleasure feeds their fiery nature when they subdue friend and enemy under them4 ,it is an unenviable pleasure which they enjoy2 nobody shares with them1 and when their ill-humour dies down it must leave a nasty taste in their mouth4 ,if you want to be happy1 do not expect too much from life4 ,do not ask more from friendship than you give1 for eventually the balance is sure to adjust itself4 ,do not ask more than your share of good things2 if you do exceed the limit1 disappointment will dog your footsteps all the day4 ,you cannot expect to be always happy4 ,trouble and sorrow come to all of us1 with a difference4 ,some people extract comfort out of trouble1 and it assuages their grief2 others add worry to their woe1 and it aggravates their vexation of spirit4 ,motor-cars carry a little dynamo on board and generate their own electric current as they travel1 and after dark1 with the great headlights glowing1 they travel pleasantly and safe4 ,a contented mind is a dynamo we can carry with us1 and it generates its own happiness as we travel4 ,it illumines the journey of life and makes it pleasant to ourselves and agreeable to friends travelling in our company4 ,do not grizzle over chances missed in life and might have beens which sprinkle your past like gravestones dotting a churchyard1 inscribed sacred to the memory of cherished griefs still hugged and spasmodically wept over4 ,convert the mossy tombstones into wayside shrines which loving hands garland with fresh flowers1 while grateful hearts fondly linger there1 recalling pleasant things and sweet companionship which gladdened your pilgrim way4 ,do not erect mural tablets to dead ambitions in the little sanctuary of your memory2 build altars there instead whereon you can offer acceptable oblations of praise for evils escaped and for the crown of loving-kindness with which the ,everlasting ,arms encircle you4 ,if we only had the gift of humour on us it would make life more amusing than we thought4 ,our eyes would open to a new world wherein kinder people dwell and where brighter sunshine warms the heart's red blood and chases down the gloom we anticipate to-morrow that may never come4 99,,iii99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,self-,,denial99 ,self-denial is not the highest form of virtue1 nor is it a permanent condition of life for man to live in2 yet it is a lure that draws men to martyrdoms as the flame collects moths to the burning4 ,man was not predestinated to a life of self-abnegation4 ,self-denial is a compromise between misery and happiness4 ,human nature does not thrive on compromise2 it does not develop in austerities4 ,self-denial has its value in the scheme of moral education4 ,training is good for man if he does not carry it too far4 ,you can overtrain4 ,the scholar trains2 he discreetly withdraws from gay life and inflicts on himself long hours of lonely study that he may rank in the list of ,university honours4 ,the jockey trains1 and punishes himself in so doing that he may ride to win4 ,it is the same the world over3 pain is joy in the making4 ,where self-denial is the driving power in religious life it leads1 not to happiness1 but to asceticism3 to the lonely cell of the misanthropic monk1 the pedestal of ,st4 ,simon ,stylates1 or the self-torture of the ,indian fakir4 ,deluded people these1 who build up life on self-denial as the pinnacle virtue to which man can soar while on earth4 ,none of these people set self-denial in its proper place in the human economy--viz41 a means to an end4 ,it is the end-all in their vision of life1 and so their life is dismal in the living and disappointing in its purpose4 ,self-denial is necessary and serves a healthy purpose4 ,it is necessary to man's spiritual welfare as medicine or the surgeon's knife may be necessary to his physical health4 ,man is of twofold nature3 the animal and the spiritual1 the good and the bad1 the superior and the inferior--label it as you please4 ,self-denial is putting the inferior quality under the superior one2 self-denial is following the higher inspiration at the expense of the lower instincts4 ,self-denial3 the very word implies1 repressing desires1 renouncing pleasures1 suffering pain4 ,it means living from choice on the shady1 dank side of the street rather than basking in the open sunny piazza when only a few steps place you there1 where the children play and the old men foregather deep in the hallowed sunshine4 ,self-denial is not the crowning virtue--it is just the market price we pay that we may garner a harvest of happiness in the recompensing days of autumn4 ,the ,divine purpose in man is growth1 not repression of growth2 it is to expand1 to unfold1 to develop character4 ,to pass from bud to flower in moral and spiritual excellence1 not to stunt manhood till its fairest features are arrested in growth1 and moral atrophy sets up a canker in the bud1 and ugliness usurps the seat of beauty in a man's character4 ,ugliness everywhere may be left to the devil as his monopoly4 ,self-denial is the grubby chrysalis2 happiness is the golden butterfly on the wing4 ,not self-denial1 but enjoyment1 is the highest good and the truest test of character4 ,enjoyment2 rejoicing in that which ought to delight us in this our earthly life--this is a finer attainment than self-denial4 ,enjoyment means a full life1 living upon our whole nature1 and well-balanced withal in the living4 ,it seems an attractive and sinless programme to subscribe to1 yet it is difficult to draw a boundary-line between enjoyment and excess4 ,this is where the crux comes in4 ,this is verily the fire that tries every man's work of what sort it is4 ,it is cruel punishment to crush your passions and pleasures out of existence--that is self-denial4 ,it is splendid discipline to give them play and at the same time hold them in control--that is enjoyment4 ,success in this great endeavour brings the victor into marching-line with the angels1 and yields a finer exaltation and a larger recompense than trampling on the lilies4 ,it is more difficult to hold steadily a full cup than to carry an empty flagon4 ,it is a doleful religion that uproots every flower in the garden as a noxious weed until only the naked brown earth remains to gaze upon in the blessed sunshine4 ,it is a scurvy trick of virtue to spill the heady liquor on the ground and then with a flourish place the empty chalice an offering on the altar4 ,abstinence is the morality of the weak1 temperance is the morality of the strong4 ,a deep enjoying nature is one of ,god's best gifts to man4 ,the happy man is generally the best of his breed4 ,the good are usually happy1 and the happy are usually good4 ,there are no short cuts to being happy1 you must be really good to win through4 ,if our daily occupation is congenial to our taste and disposition1 our mind dwells at ease and our nature mellows in the sunshine of agreeable surroundings4 ,our sense of contentment radiates good humour and makes us kindly and benevolent to others4 ,we are not chafed and fretted by duties irksome to us1 because uncongenial4 ,we are fulfilling destiny1 and fulfilling it with completeness of purpose4 ,those around us feel the warm1 penetrating sunshine of our hearts1 and they grow warm under the mystic touch of the sun4 ,it is for this reason that happiness becomes a holy quest with us1 for out of it spring the virtues which robe life in beauty and gladness4 ,one of the most precious of human faculties is the power to enjoy4 ,self-denial is either a tyranny or a virtue1 and should be praised with circumspection4 ,many feverishly religious people debase its moral currency4 ,they hinder their own happiness and thwart the happiness of others as far as in them lies1 and fancy in so doing they keep the whole ten commandments of ,god4 ,self-denial for the sake of self-denial is a pagan rite3 cold1 pitiless1 sterile4 ,renunciation and suffering prove nothing4 ,men have renounced and suffered for the greed of gold1 for the lust of ambition1 for the honour of a blood-stained idol1 and lost moral stamina in so doing4 ,the experience of ages brands deep the flaming truth upon us that sacrifice must be valued according to the object for which the sacrifice is made4 ,sacrifice for its own sake weaves no crown of glory for the martyr's brow4 ,it is a form of amiable suicide4 ,if you starve yourself for the sake of showing mastery over self1 what thank have ye8 ,the heathen do even the same--and do it better4 ,it is an act of self-torture1 and ministers to your pride of purpose4 ,but to give up a meal when hungry that one you love may have it puts a better complexion on the deed4 ,to bear pain for the grim joy of bearing it brings no reward4 ,do not even the ,stoics the same8 ,but to bear pain rather than surrender truth or to cover a suffering friend is a loving and heroic act1 meriting a ,v4,c4 when spiritual honours are distributed4 ,the old painters pictured in glowing witchery of colour the ordeal by suffering as the master-key that opened the gates of paradise to macerated mortals4 ,the old writers drove home the same insidious error with all the pious fervour of their fluent pen1 and thus men became fascinated with the doctrine of self-immolation as the highest good4 ,in mediaeval times the via dolorosa was the well-trodden public way travelled by sainted pilgrims seeking a better country4 ,meritorious misery won through1 for it was aureoled with the ,church's benediction and rendered attractive by her promise of eternal rewards4 ,surely this daily human life of ours was not ordained to be a pageant of austerity reaching from the cradle to the grave4 ,the ,creator1 having given this beautiful world as a temporary home for ,his children to dwell in1 expects agreeable people to occupy its furnished splendours for a space of three score years and ten1 more or less4 ,if not1 then the ,creator's gift is wasted bounty flung to dull and unappreciative mortals4 ,brighter and healthier views of life emerge out of the crude misconceptions which enveloped the past in religious gloom1 although there yet remain amongst us people who revel in the luxury of self-denial as in a feast of fat things1 while the genial side of their nature remains dormant1 starved1 stunted4 ,i have seen such-like in the flesh1 spoken with them and touched their cold hands4 ,they are unattractive people to know1 and not companionable to travel with4 ,they are faultless1 methodical1 patient1 but they have no endearing friendships1 no entwining intimacies by which you can fasten on them and love them4 ,they are isolated and self-contained1 lacking the charm of some little human weakness which makes us all akin4 ,they may have a warm heart1 but chilled blood circulates round it4 ,their eyes glitter like glaciers at the call of duty4 ,they hurry from committee meeting to committee meeting1 and forget to lunch between engagements4 ,they shine in the performance of self-imposed errands of mercy1 and live by rule relentlessly at any cost to pocket1 health1 or reputation4 ,they minister to the sick and poor assiduously1 and mother a class of poor factory girls in the evening1 but their home is shivery to enter as a cold storage4 ,a cold storage is a curious place to visit1 but an impossible place to dwell in1 except for frozen goods4 ,it is possible to make the best of both worlds without an uncomfortable sense of sin nagging you like toothache2 it is possible to work for others and yet tend your own vineyard with whole-hearted joy garnered from the wonder and beauty and sunshine of this our earthly home4 ,the man is not a miscreant who laughs heartily and often3 the person is not a saint who starves his body to save his soul4 ,the harassing question is1 ,how can we make the best of life as it comes to us a day at a time1 and yet sail on an even keel8 ,it is the problem that prophets1 savants1 and theologians have hammered at through the ages1 but have not yet forged in fine gold the key that unlocks the mystery2 thus there is an opening for us to cut in before the final word is uttered and the discussion battens down under a unanimous show of hands1 which crowning mercy will be the last far-off result of time4 ,the question agitating the moment is1 ,what shall we do with the fair flower of our earthly life8 ,shall we enjoy it as we would the beauty and fragrance of a rose1 thanking the good ,god for a gift so sweet and precious1 or shall we with peevish fingers pick the rose to pieces petal by petal and crush it under foot1 fearing its beauty may seduce our virtue and its perfume poison our soul8 ,let us preserve the rose inviolate4 ,its role is to be joy-giver on the earth4 ,i would sooner sit with ,jesus ,christ at the marriage feast in ,cana of ,galilee and drink with ,him wine of the best vintage that ever flowed on festive board than sup with ,john ,baptist in the wilderness on his menu of locusts and wild honey4 ,the exquisite scene my imagination quaintly pictures is ,jesus ,christ and ,john the ,baptist sitting together at the banquet1 and each enjoying the meal with equal zest4 ,the ,renaissance which fascinated half ,europe in the fifteenth century1 like a carillon of joy-bells ringing through the land1 stirring the dull pulses of the people and reviving generous and graceful ideals of life1 was just open rebellion against the crabbed austerities of the ,church1 practised in the name of religion falsely so called4 ,the people threw off the galling yoke of forced asceticism and found liberty of spirit and peace of mind in literature and art1 and in the spontaneous and natural flow of healthy human life4 ,unfortunately1 there was a fly in the amber2 the people borrowed most of their new pleasures from pagan ,greece1 and the old ,greek gods came tripping back from fairyland hand in glove with ,greek culture1 which was embarrassing4 ,the advent of the light-hearted ,cavaliers in ,england1 flinging colour and warmth and gaiety over the land1 was a sharp recoil from the drab severity of ,puritan rule4 ,the ,puritans were men of strong personality3 half soldiers and half preachers4 ,they were honest without charm2 strong-minded without pose2 mighty in conscience1 but mean in heart qualities4 ,they were clean livers1 but as they aged their visage grew hard and sour as unripe fruit1 and their geniality of temper withered like a winter apple4 ,they forgot to smile2 the solemnities of life crushed them4 ,they were grave and sagacious citizens lacking vivacity and humour1 with plenty of flavour1 but no sweetness4 ,they dreamed of invisible kingdoms and fought for eternal verities4 ,they command our admiration1 but do not win our love4 ,their ,god was of the best theology mechanically constructed at ,geneva by ,john ,calvin1 built up in parts composed of ,righteousness1 ,justice1 ,holiness4 ,beauty was barred as a ,divine attribute4 ,the dismal meeting-house where they worshipped was the whitewashed prison in which the captured ,deity dwelt4 ,the burning light of this dread ,presence enraptured the elect souls and intimidated the uncovenanted and graceless sinners1 while the vast multitude of the nation held aloof1 dreading contact with a religion so fierce and yet so gloomy1 and they waited patiently through the shivering night of ,roundhead rule1 like watchmen on the city walls1 for the coming of the king to set ,english homes once again humming with joy4 ,these two strong currents of life--,self-denial and ,enjoyment--are flowing side by side in our midst to-day1 dividing men in thought and purpose1 driving men into open collision1 only to relax their strangle-hold on one another to get firmer grip and fight again another day4 ,these two different ideals of life represent two antagonistic sides of a man's nature that clash with each other1 and the man has a stand-up fight with himself1 which is an experience fiery temperaments often plunge into4 ,each side carries a half-truth and half an error4 ,blend the two half-truths into an intimate and harmonious whole and sink the errors into the bottomless pit from whence they came1 and you discover human nature touching its highest and ripest form1 approaching the ,christlike in character1 which combines the two elements in true and everlasting union4 ,jesus of ,nazareth1 whose knightly character embodied all that the sweet romancists of the ,middle ,ages dreamed of and pictured in the faultless knight-errant of their day which won their hearts' devotion and consent 7preux chevalier sans peur et sans reproche71 and all that our own age typifies and holds dear in modern character of good repute when in a single phrase it proclaims the man a perfect gentleman--,jesus ,christ means all that and more to us4 ,christ is not a withered flower on a broken stem torn from the ,tree of ,life2 ,he is not a damaged idol of an effete civilization which modern progress sweeps aside in its forward march2 ,he is not the ,lord of an ancient faith whom the fires of scientific criticism have burnt up and left only ,his ashes in a cinerary urn reposing on the altar of our heart4 ,he is the world's one fulfilment of the faultless and the ideal in human nature1 blending all that is beautiful and enjoyable with all that is holy and vigorous4 99,,iv99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,magic ,,words99 ,beautiful language is the flower of poetry4 ,the magic of diction1 of enchanted words transformed into radiant1 marvellous sentient things pulsing with life and passion1 capture our attention1 and deep within us something vibrates in answer to their mastering call4 ,a writer with perfect felicity of expression voices thoughts and emotions of our own heart that we cannot give utterance to1 yet of which we are dimly conscious4 ,these ghostly creatures of our mind1 half a memory and half a thing1 peep and mutter within us2 we try to hold them1 but they are illusive as shadows on the wall4 ,from the well-written words there leaps out something that has life and form and comeliness in it1 and instantly we recognize an intimate returning from a far country laden with spoil4 ,words liberate the imprisoned thought that fretted within us and set it free3 gloriously free for you and me and all the world to make familiar with4 ,there are words--spectacular words that print indelibly pleasant pictures on the mind1 reveal in a sabre-flash thoughts that burn and things that were hidden4 ,there are words--vivid1 striking1 portentous words that unfold noble vistas of truth in which happy1 emancipated people walk freely in sunlight and song4 ,there are melodious1 aromatic words that ring tunefully through corridors of the mind like a carillon of merry bells charming the heart with far-reaching joy4 ,there are strong1 fiery1 tempestuous words that crash and rattle and reverberate like rolling thunder through your being1 and kindle the spirit of man into blazing passion and heroic fervour4 ,there are dull1 prosy1 somnolent words that baffle like a ,london fog1 envelop the writer's meaning in dense obscurity1 and lure the reader's mentality into quagmires of perplexity and doubt4 ,there are ambrosial1 honeyed1 ornate words that regale us with fair visions of life1 and steep the mind in dreams of romance and intoxicate with amorous delight4 ,there are treacherous1 lying words that distil murder in the air as they wing their evil flight4 ,they strike deadly as a keen stiletto1 or spit poison like a venomous adder in the grass4 ,there are discordant words that harrow up the feelings1 and there are smooth1 velvety1 caressing words whose sweet sorcery holds us in their thrall1 and that flow on and on harmoniously like the rippling of many waters that never fall out of tune4 ,words cannot be measured with the measuring-reed of a man2 they are spiritual forces2 they are angels of blessing or cursing4 ,unuttered we control them1 uttered they control us4 ,a man may have much wisdom packed into his capacious mind1 but to unfold it attractively so that it glitters in the public eye and arrests attention is where the master art of handling words comes in4 ,one secret of successful writing is to express your thoughts in as few words as possible4 ,be frugal in your expenditure of words as a miser over the outlay of his hoarded gold4 ,write clearly1 tersely1 compactly1 for words1 like coins of the realm1 are most esteemed when they contain large value in little space4 ,the more briefly a thing is said1 the more brilliantly it is put4 ,the rarest of all qualities in a writer is--measure1 saying exactly as much as you mean to say and not a word more or less4 ,if a picture is complete1 everything added is something taken away4 ,the command of language is often a snare of the devil into which men fall and do themselves grievous hurt4 ,a redundancy of flowery words and empty fluency of speech confuse the thought and confound the meaning2 skip half the telling and you know more of the tale4 ,oh the dreariness of some solid reading ,i have done in my time6--very learned and logical dissertations1 but dulness crowned it all2 even the dry bones of scientific matter clogged with technicalities can be made to live by a touch of style4 ,cartloads of words rumbling along the rutty road of argument slowly to their destination are not half so forceful as an apt image which flies straight to the point on wings of inspiration1 and gets there first4 ,no subject is uninteresting if discoursed with an engaging pen1 for words throw colour-magic on things that are common-place and give charm to them4 ,i have watched ,italian sunlight playing on the crumbling plaster walls of a peasant's cottage on the ,tuscan hills1 drenching them in opal and rose-carmine splendours1 changing them into the image of a fairy palace4 ,words cast sunlight on commonplace1 familiar things1 flushing them with a radiance all their own1 and so awaking our mind to see new beauties1 or old beauties made manifest in a new light which had been staled by the lethargy of custom4 ,miss ,mitford's village was an ordinary ,berkshire village mute in the annals of ,english history1 but it was surprised into fame by the romantic pen of its lady historian4 ,a splendid accident of literary achievement adorned it with immortality1 for it unfolds vividly before our wondering eyes the beauty of petty things and plain people in village life4 ,the world owes to her genial pen a debt of gratitude2 for it has won our sympathies1 and in reading her book we can read our own village with interest instead of boredom1 and see for ourselves the beauty and pathos and comedy of common people and homely things around us4 ,art is the gift of ,god to man4 ,it is impossible to buy or barter for the possession of it4 ,you may cultivate1 improve1 perfect the indwelling talent1 but the ,divine seed is sown mysteriously in the life of the child when brought to birth4 ,in whom the secret power lies dormant none know until the appointed hour reveals its budding graces4 ,inscrutable is the ,divine favour2 none can tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth4 ,it is not inherited like gold or lands2 it is not an entailed honour which accompanies the family title4 ,genius seldom1 like an heirloom1 passes from sire to son in direct succession4 ,a man may possess the advantages that education1 training1 culture give1 yet all these excellent acquirements combined cannot manufacture an artist4 ,it needs the live coal taken from off the altar to kindle the sacred flame which illumines the artist's soul4 ,the painter's art is subject to this very mysterious law4 ,philip ,gilbert ,hamerton describes the working of the artistic spirit in man4 ,he says3 ,painting is a pursuit in which thought1 scholarship1 information1 go for little2 whereas a strange1 unaccountable talent working in obscure ways achieves the only results worth having4 ,here is a field in which neither birth nor condition is of any use1 and wealth itself of exceeding little2 here faculty alone avails1 and a kind of faculty so subtle and peculiar1 so difficult to estimate before years have been spent in developing it1 or wasted in the vain attempt to develop where it does not exist4 ,there are pictures you and ,i dearly love1 and they are priceless treasures in the market2 yet there is no deep thought or display of learning in them to win our admiration4 ,they violate facts of history1 they outrage the grammar of academic art1 and even their drawing may be inaccurate4 ,why1 then1 are such works cherished and treasured8 ,because1 with all their faults1 they have power1 they have feeling2 they speak to the heart4 ,the men who painted them were unlearned and ignorant1 but they were artists to the finger-tips4 ,there is a spiritual something breathing beneath the surface of the true painter's work which leaps to the eye and draws upon us and bestirs our emotions4 ,other pictures--laboured1 scholastic1 monumental1 they leave us cold and passionless1 and we pass them by on the other side4 ,a good architect also is to the manner born4 ,the principles of proportion in designing a building are difficult to adjust to give pleasure to the eye4 ,now1 the sense of proportion is a gift which some men possess and others lack2 although they are architects by profession1 they are amateurs in construction4 ,without that subtle sense of proportion a man blunders through his designs1 and puts no feeling of beauty or joy in the finished structure which is the work of his hands4 ,ruskin says3 ,it is just as rational an attempt to teach a young architect how to proportion truly and well by calculating for him the proportions of fine works as it would be to teach him to compare melodies by calculating the mathematical relations of the notes in ,beethoven's ',adelaide' or ,mozart's ',requiem4' ,the man who has eye and intellect will invent beautiful proportions1 and cannot help it2 but he can no more tell us how to do it than ,wordsworth could tell us how to write a sonnet1 or than ,scott could have told us how to plan a romance4 ,what the faculty of feeling is to the artist1 what the sense of proportion is to the architect1 the gift of style is to the writer4 ,style is the witchery of words2 style is clothing thought in captivating language4 ,style is the setting of the gem4 ,the gem may be rare1 but it needs the aid of the goldsmith's art to make the most of it4 ,it is the skilful setting that holds up the sparkling gem to our admiration4 ,style is everything in writing2 it makes the thoughts sparkle4 ,niceties of style you cannot explain by rule-of-three1 nor dissect its individuality by the drastic deed of vivisection2 you cannot slash the heart out of it with a critickin's reckless knife4 ,you can unravel a piece of rare old ,flemish tapestry1 and destroy the beautiful design and harmonious colouring of it4 ,in fact1 you can reduce the tapestry to a heap of valueless threads of worsted fit only for burning2 but style in literature you cannot pick to pieces4 ,you cannot find the master-thread on which the secret of the pattern runs1 and which reveals the cunning of the workman's craft4 ,by some mysterious process the writer weaves words together that the chambers of our imagination may be hung with tapestries rare and pleasant to behold4 ,no explanation of the gift of penmanship is possible4 ,moulding words into forms of beauty is not an achievement3 it is a gift of the gods1 and no handbook of literature1 however diligently pursued1 can turn an artisan into an artist cunning in gold-minted phrases4 ,when ,castiglione sent the manuscript of his book1 ,the ,perfect ,courtier1 to ,vittoria ,colonna for her approval1 she replied in a flattering letter thanking the author1 saying3 ,the subject is new and beautiful1 but the excellence of the style is such that1 with a sweetness never before felt1 it leads us up a most pleasant and fertile slope1 which we gradually ascend without perceiving that we are no longer on the level ground from which we started2 and the way is so well cultivated and adorned that we scarce can tell whether ,art or ,nature has done most to make it fair4 ,it is expression that counts1 and the writer who expresses himself simply1 vividly1 concisely1 boldly1 and plays upon our heart-strings at pleasure1 is naturally a gifted man4 ,he not only sees in clear1 full vision himself1 but he brings his vision home to our cloudy brains and makes us see clearly2 that is the wonder of it4 ,it needs all the art and magic and persuasion of language to accomplish this difficult task4 ,we see the subject presented as a picture when he writes with a graphic pen2 we feel poignantly when his sharp and polished periods pierce like a rapier our understanding2 we are fascinated when his impassioned eloquence flows1 glittering like running water in the sunlight1 dazzling our bewildered brains4 ,and when he scores by his native wit and writes in his trenchant1 racy mother-tongue there is a smile in the stalls and loud laughter in the pit4 ,how mysteriously beauty steals into language and warms up the radiant face of poetry with glowing vitality4 ,there is no beauty in stale prosaic sentences like ,trespassers will be prosecuted or ,rubbish may be shot here1 because they say exactly and completely all that they have to say and nothing more can be squeezed out of them4 ,there is beauty in a sentence like ,the bright day is done4 ,and we are for the night1 or ,he shall come down like rain upon the mown grass1 because in them1 although they seem quite simple1 the poet is trying to say infinitely more than he can pack into words4 ,it is the effort to do something beyond the power of words2 it is the effort to investigate the alluring ,infinite with a mind closely fettered within the cramped and narrow finite that can only stretch forth a hand here and there between prison bars and touch the azure of infinitude which is the dreamland of the soul2 it is this reaching out that brings beauty into language3 it enflames the imagination2 it ruffles the emotions2 unutterable thoughts linger on the lips and fail to break away4 ,there is a greatness in these winged words feathered with beauty because they mean a thousand times more than speaks on the surface4 ,when ,i was young the magic of words took possession of my virgin mind4 ,the first master of language that ,i served under was ,john ,ruskin4 ,the aim of good writing is to communicate feeling2 ,ruskin did this intensely4 ,the indefinable richness and power of words as they flowed from his pen1 the musical and measured cadence of his prose1 and the limpid clearness of his thoughts when cast on paper1 placed an hypnotic spell upon me4 ,when reading one of his books1 ,i dwelt in dreamland4 ,another reading that ,i enjoyed with avidity in the seventies and eighties of the last century was the long literary leaders1 never too long for me1 in the ,daily ,telegraph4 ,the best literary talent of the day wrote them4 ,many of them ,i cut out and placed in my scrap-book2 alas6 to be buried in decent sepulchre1 for ,i never see them now4 ,lord ,burnham1 the proprietor of the ,daily ,telegraph1 put himself into these leaders1 although other pens wrote them4 ,they were his special hobby1 and grew under his inspiration4 ,his biographer tells us3 ,he had the rhetorical sense strongly developed4 ,he liked full-blooded writing1 and had a tenderness for big words and big adjectives1 well-matched and in pairs4 ,he revelled in the warmth and colour of certain words1 and the more resonant they were1 the better he liked them4 ,words carry not only meaning1 but atmosphere with them4 ,sometimes a single word well chosen and well placed in a sentence gives feeling1 and lights it up with a glow of beauty4 ,j4 ,a4 ,symonds says3 ,the right word used in the right place constitutes the perfection of style4 ,in my youth a literary friend was pruning a crude essay ,i had written2 he paused in his reading on the word fallacious1 and he said3 ,that's a good word and well chosen2 it's the right word4 ,it was a revelation to me at the time that one word was better than another if they both meant the same thing4 ,on thinking it over1 ,i saw that no two words do mean exactly the same thing1 and that there is only one right word in a hundred to express exactly your meaning and to give life to it4 ,the other ninety-and-nine words are but poor relations--nay6 they are all dead corpses4 ,perhaps you remember ,millais' wonderfully popular picture called ,cinderella4 ,a beautiful healthy ,english child1 with deep dreamy eyes and long wavy golden hair sits on a stool by the kitchen fire holding in her hand a birch broom emblem of her kitchen toil4 ,it is a fascinating picture4 ,at home ,i look on a coloured print of it nearly every day of the week4 ,the most brilliant thing on the canvas is the patch of scarlet in the dainty cap the child wears4 ,that single dab of red seems to concentrate in itself the whole colour-scheme of the picture4 ,it is the keynote4 ,now a single word in a sentence sometimes gives a startling effect4 ,it strikes a strong1 clear1 ringing note which keys the writer's passing mood1 fascinates us with its vividness1 and sticks in the memory ever after4 ,it is a colour-patch in literary art which dominates the picture and arrests attention1 as in ,shakespeare's ,every yesterday hath lighted fools ,the way to dusty death6 ,or1 ,the primrose path to the eternal bonfire4 ,or ,pope's ,quick effluvia darting through the brain ,die of a rose in aromatic pain4 ,also ,cease1 fond ,nature1 cease thy strife1 ,and let me languish into life4 ,and ,gray's inimitable couplet3 ,there pipes the song-thrush1 and the skylark there ,scatters his loose notes in the waste of air4 ,it is the height of literary skill to gather up your thought into a single word and fling it flaming on canvas4 ,it is more convincing than a long chapter of dull argument which drugs the senses4 ,tennyson knew the magic of a single epithet in the thought scheme of the moment when he sang3 ,all the charm of all the muses often flowering in a lonely word4 ,it is not as easily done as eating hot cakes for tea1 for it is not the first word that comes sailing into a man's head that is the right word4 ,the comely phrase1 the well-born word1 is a prince of high degree1 and you may wait in his anteroom days before an audience is granted4 ,the elect word does not sit on the tip of the tongue and drop into its place at call4 ,you may search diligently and not find it1 and presently of its own free will it comes to you1 a happy thought flashed from the void where whispering spirits dwell4 ,gray's ,elegy is the most perfect poem in the ,english language4 ,it was not thrown together carelessly in an idle hour one sleepy summer afternoon4 ,every word and every line of it cost thought1 was written and rewritten1 and patiently polished over again4 ,for eight years the author held the poem between the hammer and the anvil1 beating it into shape before he passed it into print4 ,he damaged reams of paper developing a fair copy of those immortal verses4 99,v99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,an ,,old ,,tuscan ,,garden99 ,a delightful ,french writer says to grow old in a garden in sight of softly undulating hills1 beneath a sky variable as the human soul1 is very sweet1 very consoling1 very easy4 ,one becomes more of a child and for the first time a philosopher4 ,poetry and wisdom on every hand permeate the close of life1 just as the oblique rays of the setting sun penetrate into the heart of the densest foliage1 which is impervious to the vertical beams of noonday4 ,this charming writer touches the spot2 experience1 tenderness1 and sympathy flow from mellowed lips well rounding to the autumn of life4 ,old age does reflect more discerningly than impatient youth1 and in a garden1 too1 surrounded by a heavenly host of flowers whose blossom is as laughter and whose perfume is a song4 ,romance sketches wonderful pictures with such a beatific background to inspire it1 and imagination wanders into a carnival of dreams4 ,how many pleasant thoughts and noble thoughts have been brought to birth in a garden which afterward grew into brave deeds and gentle lives contributing generously to enrich the sum of human happiness6 ,i sit under an ilex-tree in an old ,tuscan garden which in course of many generations has belonged to many owners4 ,a haunting beauty fills the ancient place1 which one can feel1 but cannot understand4 ,a friendly atmosphere that pervades old gardens saturates the solitude4 ,it is more than atmosphere1 it is influence--a caressing influence almost human that holds us up and tantalizes4 ,vague ancestral memories of old families flash upon the mind2 for more than four hundred years men and women have walked and talked and thought in this ,tuscan garden of mine1 and tended its flowers and enjoyed its tranquillity4 ,children have played in it1 often going to bed tired and happy after romping in it the livelong day1 and so generation after generation mankind repeats itself in the life-story of the old garden on a ,tuscan hillside4 ,the spirit of the past haunts it in shadow and in sunshine1 because wherever men have been they leave a little of themselves behind in ghostly exhalations4 ,when one is in a contemplative humour a garden is full of object-lessons interesting to study4 ,by dint of watching leaf replace leaf1 insects come into life and die1 blossoms change into fruit1 fruit ripen and fall1 the swallows come with the daffodils and depart when the hunter's moon frightens them away--by watching these things methodically and silently accomplishing their allotted tasks1 ,i have come to think about myself with brave resolution and resigned conformity to natural laws4 ,i grieve less over myself when ,i regard the change which is universal2 the setting sun and the dying summer help me also to decline gently4 ,life is a splendid heritage to hold in fee1 but we quit and deliver up possession when our lease expires4 ,the light must be kept burning if our own little taper flickers into darkness4 ,a young girl visited us in ,florence one spring-time4 ,she lived in the garden among the flowers1 caressed them1 talked to them1 and gathered them by the handful1 the armful1 the basketful4 ,she decorated the rooms with flowers1 filled glass bowls and bronze vases with flowers1 and her art touched its zenith in glorifying the dinner-table every evening with the choicest of them all4 ,she chatted1 smiled1 and sang whilst doing it1 for she dearly loved the flowers that she fondled4 ,we took her to the ,uffizi to see the world-renowned ,old ,masters there2 but she yawned in front of masterpieces of art1 and her eyes wandered round searching the smart costumes of the ladies in the room4 ,we took her to ,rome and showed her the sights of the ,eternal ,city1 but ,bond ,street and ,regent ,street interested her more than ,st4 ,peter's and the ,coliseum4 ,we visited the ,forum with its ruined temples and triumphal arches1 and trod the ,via ,sacra2 but the place was only an old stoneyard to her1 devoid of interest1 so we left her to herself1 and she wandered over the ,forum on other pleasure bent1 and we found her afterwards picking violets amongst the ruins4 ,when at home again a friend asked how she enjoyed her visit to ,rome1 and had she seen the ,forum8 ,in blank despair she appealed to me to help her out of it4 ,yes1 ,i replied1 you saw the ,forum2 that is where you picked the violets4 ,the ,forum to her was deadly dull and forgotten even by name1 but a bunch of wild violets lived vividly in her memory as the crown and flower of her heart's desire1 more excellent than all the ruins of ,rome4 ,dulness comes to us in uncongenial company and occupation4 ,you may be surrounded by objects of interest and beauty which amuse other people1 but if these worthy objects do not fit your taste1 for you they contain no element of delight1 and you are bored utterly with them whoever may sing their praise4 ,it is a question of temperament4 ,the heart is not dull if the head is triste4 ,every eye makes its own beauty and every heart forms its own kinships4 ,put me in front of a post-impressionist picture and dulness covers me like a funeral pall4 ,the beauties of the glowing picture composed of significant form and bunkum are lost on me completely4 ,here is something tremendously original that makes demands on my intelligence that ,i cannot meet4 ,i am mentally bankrupt in front of this maddening art4 ,looking at a post-impressionist picture1 you see only shapes and forms tangled together within the limited area of a gilt frame2 you see relations and quantities of colour splashed on canvas meaning anything you choose to label it1 but in the likeness of nothing ,god made or man ever saw4 ,it distorts nature and scoffs at portraiture4 ,creating a work of art1 trumpets the evangelist of post-impressionism1 is so tremendous a business that it leaves no leisure for catching a likeness4 ,you look at a landscape1 and you are not to see it as fields and cottages2 instead you are to see it as lines and colours4 ,yet up against this lucid statement ,i observe no reason why the portrait of a man should be drawn like a peculiarly shaped market-garden divided into plots for growing vegetables4 ,nor can ,i explain why the picture of a village street should look like a fortnight's wash suspended in a cherry orchard1 and the policeman standing in front of the village inn at the corner should look like a laundry-maid hanging out the clothes4 ,it requires uncommon genius to work the illusion successfully1 and to start an indolent ,british public frivolling with the captivating puzzle4 ,but it leaves me cold and passionless1 for ,i am slow of understanding these things4 ,they say an impressionist picture of top-note character is a painfully exciting object for the spectator to worship4 ,to do it justice1 he must squirm in front of it1 for it is a picture that creates a thunderstorm of rhapsody1 a deluge of delight1 a roaring cataract of aesthetic emotion in the soul of the man who understands its cryptic language4 ,the artist who limned the picture suffers agonies whilst working up significant form1 being pricked with pins and needles of excitement1 and is continually dancing on the hot-plate of rapture4 ,the spectator's duty when viewing a work of art is to come into touch with the mind of the artist4 ,to do this no wonder the spectator has a bad time when digesting a whole gallery of post-impressionist pictures4 ,their religion is as bewildering as their art4 ,for their moral vision is out of kilter1 as their eyesight is out of focus4 ,the aforesaid evangelist of the cult says3 ,i doubt whether the good artist bothers much more about the future than about the past4 ,why should artists bother about the fate of humanity8 ,if art does not justify itself1 aesthetic rapture does4444 ,rapture suffices4 ,the artist has no more call to look forward than the lover in the arms of his mistress4 ,there are moments in life that are ends to which the whole history of humanity would not be an extravagant means2 of such are the moments of aesthetic ecstasy4 ,we return to the garden1 for the lure of a garden relaxes not4 ,the joy of it entangles you in its toils4 ,each successive season of the year unfolds new developments which lead you on to the next season4 ,so you are handed on from one month to another throughout the gardener's calendar by endless enticements which keep the interest gently simmering4 ,the procession of gay flowers that promenade the sheltered borders and disport themselves with flagrant pride on open beds during spring and summer days1 tricked in rainbow colours1 dazzle the eye with splendour1 win the heart's endearment1 and pay in noblest coin full recompense for the chill1 dull toil given in grey winter hours4 ,a lady friend who lived to a ripe old age said to me jocosely1 ,to be a good gardener you need a wooden back with an iron hinge to it1 for you are bending and stooping all day long in the garden4 ,only by constant labour spent on the good brown earth can you become candidate for possession of this useful garden requisite1 a wooden back with an iron hinge to it1 or the neatest imitation offered on the market4 ,in the garden you get in touch with ,nature1 breathe fresh air1 cultivate a contented mind1 and never stagnate in idleness or degenerate into ennui4 ,your body1 inured to all weathers1 escapes many little ills of the flesh1 and gradually you harden into an iron constitution1 which is the nearest earthly substitute to a wooden back hung on iron hinges4 ,you never need remain indoors to smoke or sew or yawn because there is nothing doing in the garden3 you can weed there the livelong day in the open4 ,this lowly service offers immediate reward2 it begets a healthy appetite at meal-times1 and develops a night's sound sleep1 which is some pleasure no millionaire can buy with his millions4 ,weeding puzzles my blind gardener ,emilio4 ,i have two brothers gardeners1 ,enrico and ,emilio4 ,enrico has sight only of one eye1 ,emilio is blind both eyes4 ,the two brothers work together in brotherly love1 and have only one working eye between them1 yet it is wonderful how much good work the one eye accomplishes per day4 ,emilio sees with his hands4 ,it is weeding that puzzles him most4 ,he never pulls a flower instead of a weed--he feels the difference between them4 ,it is the weeds that elude his fingers as he works along the border that grieve him4 ,weeding is a fascinating occupation to me4 ,nice people won't profane their hands grubbing in common garden soil1 but1 being a groundling myself1 ,i enjoy the fun of coming into contact with my native element4 ,clean1 sweet1 caressing earth1 it is the last flowery coverlet all of us will sleep under2 why shun thy friendly touch to-day8 ,there is always an abundant crop of weeds to practise on in an ,italian garden1 and your fingers itch to uproot them to the very last offender4 ,i suppose it is the ruthlessness and slaughter of the deed1 the close handgrip on the enemy1 that compels you on2 and when the skirmish is over1 surveying the ground cleared of the foe and the heaps of the slain withering at your feet gives a pleasurable thrill of excitement in the hour of victory4 ,you exult1 for there is something done1 and well done1 to show for your backache4 ,the gardener's lure is irresistible4 ,the devotee walks in flowerland of his own creation4 ,in dreary winter hours he dreams splendid dreams of himself surrounded by summer harmonies1 summer fragrance1 and summer flowers1 for which he has planned and planted and patiently tended along the covering months of winter and spring4 ,the hour of full realization approaches when the roses mass their rival glories and spread their coloured raptures in the garden that he loves4 ,this puts the crown on the brow of summer4 ,this is the gardener's festival of the year4 ,he invites his horticultural cronies to tea on the lawn1 and they all talk rose jargon together4 ,he takes them on a tour of inspection round the garden1 and they congratulate the founder of the feast of flowers4 ,they are happy as a band of ,sunday-school children spending the afternoon out4 ,they sit on the lawn under the spreading ilex-tree1 which casts ample shadow for their comfort1 and the summer sunshine lays ardent on the green-sward around them4 ,it is a genial gathering1 but the man who understands not roses would be speechless in their midst and not a little bored4 ,conversation cools off1 the evening shadows lengthen1 and in an interlude of silence there is a sort of whispering stillness in the warm evening air1 as if the flowers and grass and trees are all saying kind words to one another1 for having done their best to please4 ,the lure of the garden is never so poignant as at this great moment1 for your heart is brimming of sweet content1 and you say to yourself3 ,can it be true8 ,can anything in the world be more beautiful8 ,there is another lure that lays hands on a man like grappling-irons tackling a ,spanish galleon laden with treasure1 with a grip which cannot be shaken off3 ,i mean the writer's lure4 ,i am fond of reading4 ,the enticements of a good book are hard to resist1 especially if you have no inclination to resist1 but tumble a ready victim to the writer's charm4 ,what is the writer's lure8 ,how does it cast its spell8 ,you can talk round the subject by metaphor and symbol and figure of speech1 but cannot solve it like a problem in ,euclid and add ,q4,e4,d4 at the end4 ,the writer's lure is the vividest way of saying things4 ,it is a bolt shot from the mind that hits the penman's mark4 ,the writer's lure fixes you even as a beautiful sympathetic picture holds you up by its witchery of art4 ,in the picture warmth of colour1 grace of line1 melting tints1 dreamy distance1 and an added mystic charm brooding over all1 voice lovingly your taste in art1 and1 like a haunted man1 you carry the landscape about with you all day long4 ,it intrudes on your mind midst pressing business affairs2 the sunlight sleeping on the hills creates a pleasant interlude of thought when engrossed in life's little worries4 ,turner's ,crossing the ,brook in the ,tate ,gallery is a picture that bewitches me when ,i see it4 ,it stimulates my imagination and sets my thoughts sailing over the country carried on the breezes which blow across the ,turner landscape4 ,a book haunts you in the selfsame way as a picture4 ,you read a book1 and it stirs your emotions and captivates your fancy1 and for a time it possesses you like a living spirit4 ,the writer's lure holds you in its grip4 ,the book soaks into you4 ,a sentence here and there leaps to memory during odd moments of the day2 the rhythm of the language ripples musically as a chime of bells1 and you repeat the sentence to yourself again and again4 ,the aptness of an image is lifelike1 and a vision floats across your mind2 the happy turn of a sentence sticks4 ,the fresh1 clear-cut thought shot out boldly from the writer's brain conveys a new idea2 you recall the touch of humour resembling a patch of warm sunshine twinkling on the landscape1 and your lips curve into a smile4 ,there are passages of tenderness also that you treasure1 because they find your heart like shafts of love feathered with joy4 ,all these things in the book come back to you vividly1 and whisper their fond message over again4 ,one cannot explain the writer's lure4 ,you may name it1 but you cannot catch it in the reviewer's trap of criticism4 ,it is illusive as the angel who visited ,manoah and his wife1 wrought wondrously1 and vanished leaving no trace4 ,it is a secret of pencraft which defies definitions and eludes analysis1 yet it is the vital element in composition4 ,it is not a question of conforming to correct standards of good writing by which literary excellence is judged1 the writer being blessed or cursed by the censors according to the measure of his allegiance to their literary creed4 ,some writers violate every literary canon set up to guide their pen in the way of righteousness1 but they are alive with literary fire2 the vital element is fecund within them1 and they riot in the power of it4 ,there are no rules in art that great writers have not shown us how to break with advantage4 ,you cannot resolve the writer's lure into its component parts as you can a potato4 ,like electricity1 it defies analysis1 but1 like the electric current1 you feel it in your bones4 ,blind ,emilio does not work by rules taught in popular garden manuals2 he gathers inspiration for his craft direct from the heavens4 ,he is an oracle of occult information and prevision almost uncanny1 concerning things in the garden and out of it4 ,however1 he is a cheerful soul and a born optimist1 so we consult him often and rely on his wisdom1 because1 like honey1 its flavour is pleasant to the taste4 ,the moon is the guiding providence regulating some of ,emilio's important duties4 ,he observes the phases of the moon with the reverence of an astrologer of legendary days4 ,he awaits the waning moon in ,february to prune the rose-trees4 ,a potent mystic virtue dwells in a waning moon according to his garden lore1 which is old as his pagan ancestors4 ,if you prune rose-trees in a waxing moon the new growths will be long1 weak shoots1 and the crop of roses in the summer poor1 puny things4 ,prune in the waning moon and the new growths will be short1 sturdy rods bearing large flowers1 and an abundance of them4 ,garden seed must be sown under the auspices of the waning moon if you want your flower-beds in the summer-time to be renowned for beauty1 to make your friends envious of your success and yourself just swaggeringly happy4 ,what applies to roses and seed applies equally to pruning vines and grafting fruit-trees4 ,bulbs and potatoes may be planted any time4 ,they move in the spring when ,nature signals whether they are in the ground or out of it4 ,they are outside the ritual of the moon4 ,we had a heavy crop of diospyros last autumn1 drawn from four trees in the kitchen-garden4 ,these fruits are fat1 round1 rosy fellows1 plump as overgrown tomatoes4 ,the flesh of the ripe diospyros is ,nature's jam1 soft and mushy1 delicious in flavour1 and eaten politely with a spoon4 ,our neighbour who hails from ,cincinnati grew a crop of small1 sickly-looking fruit4 ,ah6 said ,emilio1 now that you see the difference in the two crops1 you must believe me4 ,their diospyros were gathered in the growing moon1 and they shrivel and lose colour and flavour2 ours were gathered in the waning moon1 and keep beautiful and sound to the end of the season4 ,there is good luck under the waning moon4 ,another explanation of the difference in the crops has merit1 which ,emilio considers treason to the honourable tradition of his fathers4 ,our fruit was grown in the kitchen-garden on manured soil2 our ,american neighbour's trees stand on a rocky bank in the wild garden which is never dressed with manure4 ,the blessing of the moon falls on the crop that is best nourished in the days of its youth4 ,in the garden is an avenue of lime-trees about one hundred and sixty feet long4 ,in the summer it forms a deliciously shady walk2 in rainy weather it is a clean and pleasant promenade1 for it has a paved pathway in it4 ,the north end of the avenue terminates in a large semicircular stone seat mounted on a stone base one step higher than the pathway4 ,the seat has no florid decorative carving on it to arouse hostility or provoke criticism4 ,it is just a plain seat of simple ,roman type1 roomy and comfortable to sit on4 ,behind the seat curves a semicircle of thirteen cypress-trees screening the north winds4 ,again1 behind the cypress-trees is an interesting old stone wall about twenty feet high1 forming the boundary of the garden4 ,above the wall1 rising in gentle slope1 is the south shoulder of the hill1 on the hill-top sits ,fiesole1 the famous ,etruscan city of history and legend4 ,the slope is covered with olives and vines1 forming a mantle grey and green with its leafy fringe dropping on our garden wall4 ,this great retaining wall is old as the villa which was purchased by ,domenico ,mori in #adge4 ,the history of the house earlier than this date is lost in the mist of antiquity4 ,the ancient wall is a feature in the garden1 for on two sides it towers like a cliff1 forming a charming background to the scene4 ,it has weathered beautifully with the ages1 and is an immense stretch of canvas for the display of masses of colour4 ,in places it is bleached silvery-grey1 and elsewhere the tinted lichen mottle it with saffron and orange and brown1 and every delectable shade and tone which ,time1 the great decorator1 with loving hand1 imparts to old stone4 ,it looks warm and gay and friendly1 and grows a rock-garden of its own1 for wild flowers bloom in its cracks and crannies and red valerian flames upon its heights1 side by side with golden broom4 ,ivy clothes it in parts1 and most mysteriously so1 for years back the plants were cut off their roots1 and the ivy now exists only on nourishment drawn from the wall1 and it exists vigorously on the meagre diet the wall supplies4 ,when the sunshine pours down upon its hoary time-worn face1 the old wall is transfigured into a thing of triple splendour1 for its colours glow and blaze with spiritual fervour imparting that artistic touch of nature which is the happy gift of garden plaisance4 ,deeply set in the wall is the ruin of a small shrine4 ,once upon a time this shrine was the home of the ,madonna1 but now no ,madonna occupies the niche4 ,some pious ancestor of the house implored gracious protection of the ,mother of ,jesus on behalf of his vines and olives1 fruits and flowers1 and he set up her ,ladyship's sheltered image in the little vaulted temple on the wall as guardian of the crops1 hoping that fat harvest would follow his devotion to ,our ,lady of ,plenty4 ,the vacant shrine is desolate and crumbling and mossy now1 and so is the sentimental faith of those ancient days4 ,it was a hallowed sentiment in its way1 this worship of the ,madonna4 ,men lived up to it1 and felt happy in their prayers to the ,lady of ,heaven4 ,nowadays men win good harvests on more scientific lines4 ,they put trust in deep ploughing and artificial manure rather than in prayers and oblations to the ,mother of ,god4 ,the personal intervention of the ,deity in the affairs of men strikes a homely note in the world's domestic management1 and brings the ,heavenly ,father in close touch with ,his earthly family2 but the dear ,god's blessing is level-handed1 and favours ,his children1 bad or good1 who work the hardest1 and add intelligence to their toil4 99,,vi99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,montelupo ,,plate99 ,my friend ,federico wandering through ,tuscany on one of those delightful excursions that he loves1 passing from town to town and village to village picking up old things en route1 called at a dealer's shop in ,bagni di ,lucca4 ,in the miscellaneous collection of antiquities there offered for sale he found nothing to please him4 ,to console him in the hour of disappointment1 the little dealer1 named ,grosso1 said3 ,i know of a beautiful ,montelupo plate that will take your fancy4 ,come with me2 it is away up the hills1 a pleasant ride for us4 ,give me a few francs for my trouble1 and you can buy the plate4 ,so they took a vettura and rode up the mountains in quest of the ,montelupo plate4 ,after an hour's delightful drive they stopped at a contadino's cottage on the roadside1 and there1 boldly on view to the passer-by and stuck on the weather-beaten front of the cottage over the doorway1 was the ,montelupo plate1 the very heart's desire of the two adventurers4 ,it was a brave plate1 round as the sun and about thirteen inches in diameter4 ,in the centre of it1 painted in flaming colours1 trotted a soldier on horseback with drawn sword in hand1 but no painted foeman visible into which to bury the thirsty blade4 ,the interior of the plate surrounding the warrior was a mass of rich deep orange ground2 the colour much esteemed by collectors of this rural pottery4 ,the contadinos in ,tuscany once owned numerous specimens of these rustic dishes1 which were used daily by them in their homes as common household crockery4 ,they were nothing thought of in those far-off days of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries4 ,they were made for the peasants' service1 and if a plate was broken another was bought for half a franc in the next market town4 ,the day came when the supply stopped and the plates could not be replaced4 ,some other novelty in kitchenware had the run of the market1 and nobody wanted ,montelupo plates4 ,fashion set in about twenty years ago to collect this crude1 curious1 neglected pottery1 so grotesque and humorous in design and coarse in workmanship1 but when reposing against the wall of a well-lit room certainly showy and decorative for all time4 ,they carry amusing and picturesque subjects1 comical or satirical in treatment4 ,not very artistic1 but cleverly and freely drawn with a few bold lines to catch the peasant's sense of humour1 which was easily tickled4 ,the plates revel in brightness and colour4 ,colour holds the eye and courts our admiration1 and fancy prices rule the market4 ,the rarest plates to find are those burlesquing the ,churchman4 ,the soldier1 the farmer1 and the serving-maid took the joke kindly1 but the plates in which the monk was caricatured offended the ,church dignitaries1 and these specimens were bought up mysteriously1 quickly destroyed1 and now cannot be found4 ,when the fashion set in1 wandering dealers and touring collectors made haste to buy4 ,they spread themselves over the country2 knocked at cottage doors in out-of-the-way places in ,tuscany1 begged a glass of milk1 admired the plates on the kitchen dresser1 and offered to buy at a few francs apiece4 ,the contadino soon found he had something good1 and the price rose to ten francs each4 ,still the plates were admired by tired travellers resting in out-of-the-way cottages drinking a glass of milk4 ,the price rose incontinently to twenty1 thirty1 fifty francs1 until the peasants discovered a gold-mine in their old kitchen crockery1 and now their stock is sold out4 ,to-day the plates are found only in the hands of dealers1 and good specimens command prices anywhere between a hundred and two hundred and fifty francs each4 ,the owner of the ,montelupo plate over the cottage door asked sixty francs for his family treasure4 ,my friend borrowed a ladder1 that he might have it down to examine4 ,no1 said the owner2 you must buy it where it is1 and pay for it first4 ,federico's fancy was caught with the pretty toy2 he submitted to the hard terms1 and paid the sixty francs4 ,little ,grosso now mounted the ladder to bring down the plate4 ,i can't move it2 it is cemented into the wall1 he called to the new comer1 standing below4 ,so he borrowed a hammer and chisel1 and ran nimbly up the ladder again and began chipping round the plate4 ,immediately the whole village was on the spot1 standing round1 excited1 chattering1 watching the job4 ,a noisy man1 the cock of the village1 slung himself forward and shouted strenuously4 ,he demanded to know what they were doing3 ,that plate has been there for over a hundred years4 ,it is a very important piece1 and is worth much money4 ,it is of great value4 ,who has bought it8 ,what have you paid for it8 ,i have bought it1 said my friend2 ,i have given sixty francs for it1 and as you think it so valuable1 ,i will sell it to you for sixty francs4 ,will you have it at the price ,i gave for it8 ,federico has a lovable disposition4 ,he takes life placidly4 ,he takes taxes placidly1 he takes bad trade placidly1 he takes the war placidly1 he takes a human tornado placidly4 ,the noisy man exploded--shouted louder and louder1 and scattered his arms about in the air1 gesticulating like the sails of a windmill racing in a stiff breeze1 but he did not buy the village treasure4 ,grosso on the ladder kept on chipping round the plate1 the crowd watching him critically4 ,presently he called out1 ,signore1 the plate is in two pieces6 ,my friend said to the noisy man3 ,do you want to buy the plate8 ,it is in two pieces--you can have it for fifty francs4 ,he did not take on1 but continued talking1 gesticulating1 and exciting the onlookers4 ,grosso continued chipping round the plate4 ,he called out again1 ,signore1 the plate is even in three pieces4 ,so my friend said to the village bully1 ,you can have the plate for thirty francs4 ,but he did not buy at the price4 ,grosso resumed his work1 hacking round the plate4 ,he called out again1 ,signore1 the plate is in many pieces6 ,so ,federico shouted to the troublesome man3 ,now is your chance2 you can have the plate for twenty francs4 ,i paid sixty for it2 will you give me twenty8 ,the man folded himself up and slunk off2 the crowd also melted away1 and ,grosso went on chipping1 and put fragment after fragment of the plate in his pocket as he released them from their cement setting4 ,he came down the ladder with the broken plate in his pocket in ten pieces4 ,they rode home to ,bagni di ,lucca1 feeling a bit miserable on the journey4 ,at ,bagni di ,lucca my friend comforted ,grosso with a good dinner in the restaurant and gave him seven francs for his trouble4 ,and what about the plate8 said ,grosso1 when my friend bid him good-bye4 ,you keep it1 ,grosso4 ,i don't want it4 ,no1 said ,grosso2 the plate is yours4 ,you have treated me well and given me seven francs4 ,i am more than satisfied4 ,keep it1 was the reply2 and away ,federico went home1 just a little disappointed with the result of his expedition up the mountains4 ,the lure of the ,montelupo dish had proved a failure4 ,next year he visited ,bagni di ,lucca in quest of antiques1 and called upon ,grosso the dealer4 ,on entering the shop he saw the ,montelupo plate hanging against the wall1 looking gay as ever without visible crack or cleavage on it4 ,the dealer had cunningly dove-tailed the plate together1 and it looked faultless to the eye4 ,it is yours1 said ,grosso2 ,i have kept it for you4 ,customers wanted to buy it4 ,i knew you would come again to see me4 ,after much persuasion and a consideration1 ,federico took the plate home and hung it in his studio amongst a collection of treasured antiques which he has gathered round him there and are the joy of his heart4 ,it was much admired1 and the romance of its history1 often related1 was as often listened to with amusement and laughter4 ,one day a ,florentine dealer visited the studio and fell in love with the ,montelupo plate1 and bought it for ninety francs4 99,,vii99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,pluck99 ,it happened in ,rome2 in our apartment on the ,piazza di ,spagna4 ,we had a visit from a ,countess4 ,she was heralded by her visiting-card1 on which blazed a coronet--an awe-inspiring visiting-card1 imposing enough to reduce to the ground the most blatant democrat4 ,what did the unknown ,countess want8 we asked each other with palpitating hearts4 ,had she come to invite us to visit her ancestral castle in the ,sabine ,hills8 ,was she a messenger from the ,queen of ,italy summoning us to an audience in the ,quirinal ,palace8 ,what did this high-toned lady want8 ,my wife faced the music alone4 ,she entered the room1 and saw a shabbily dressed old lady rambling about amongst the furniture4 ,ah6 exclaimed the ,countess2 please excuse me the liberty of admiring your old ,italian furniture2 it is very fine indeed4 ,i am so fond of it4 ,i used to have my rooms full of it1 but we sold it all to dealers4 ,they gave us a good price for it4 ,we are reduced in circumstances now1 and ,i have called to ask if you would buy some jam from me4 ,i make it myself1 and have good clients among the ,english and ,american residents4 ,i charge #c4ej lire for a jar1 and allow #ej centimes for the empty jar if returned when ,i call again4 ,she produced some glass jars of jam and honey from a basket she carried under her cloak4 ,refined-looking jars2 artistically labelled jars1 assuring the purchaser that the jam within was made under perfect hygienic conditions4 ,the wording of the labels was printed in accurate ,english2 but the ,countess could not speak ,english1 not a broken sentence of it could she utter4 ,the conversation was carried on in ,french4 ,we bought a jar of jam and a jar of honey1 and are looking hopefully for the return of the #ej centimes on the empty jars when next she calls on business intent4 ,it is no hedgerow jam1 no common cottage mixture of blackberry and apple she offered us1 but highly aristocratic peach jam from choicest fruits grown in coroneted orchards4 ,and the honey she offered was superior honey2 not the produce of old-fashioned garden flowers and wild heather from the hills--anybody breeds that plebeian honey4 ,her bees were classic to the core1 lived in the garden of ,hesperides1 and fed only on orange-blossoms and acacia4 ,no honey had an aroma equal to hers4 ,dear1 good old soul6 ,there was lots of fine metal in her character2 she was a piece of rare old silver plate with hall-mark clearly impressed on it1 but in somewhat battered and bruised condition4 ,she had been roughly handled in the hard-hammering world4 ,she had lost everything but manners and breeding4 ,she could sell jam with the grace and dignity of a ,queen bestowing royal favours on a subject4 ,she was striving to maintain herself honourably in the sight of all men1 and she would die in the last ditch rather than beg4 ,her pluck lured her on to the winning-post4 ,there are sensitive people who1 when hard-hit by ,fortune1 mope like moulting fowls and creep into dark corners of the earth2 they do not strut in the market-place and shout loud-throated their woes to the crowd2 they lower their flag and surrender themselves to fate4 ,their vanity supports their poverty1 and their poverty breaks their heart4 ,really1 these people are victims of false shame4 ,false shame deludes their common sense4 ,it discolours their imagination1 enfeebles their will-power1 and drives them on to the rocks to feed with the goats4 ,their misfortune assumes an exaggerated character in their own minds4 ,they fancy that the world stares coldly on them in their adversity and whispers contemptuously against them behind their backs1 and they collapse in the frigid atmosphere with which they surround themselves4 ,their vanity betrays them into surmising unwholesome things4 ,they fidget about themselves in their supersensitiveness4 ,they adore public opinion1 and fancy themselves filling a large place in its consideration1 and they dread the smiting lash of its hostile criticism4 ,the truth is humiliating but very refreshing to our morbid disposition1 and the truth is that people are not thinking much about us1 however conspicuously we imagine ourselves to be painted in the picture4 ,we are only one of a crowd of common people1 nor even the most interesting figure in it4 ,it is unwise to esteem ourselves to be of immeasurably more consequence than we really are4 ,the busy world at best gives us only a passing thought4 ,dr4 ,johnson bluntly said3 ,no man is much regarded by the rest of the world4 ,the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle and be forgotten4 ,if a man thinks no more seriously of his own misfortunes than his neighbour thinks of them1 his troubles will be lightly borne4 ,however1 the world is much more good-natured than the man of morbid temper gives it credit for4 ,penetrate through its cold reserve1 and you often find within a warm1 sympathetic heart4 ,the good ,english heart is oft-times hedged by a chevaux de frise of ,english hauteur hard to break through1 but get within the lines and you receive a cordial welcome4 ,our sturdy ,countess was not afflicted with false shame4 ,she had pride1 but not vanity4 ,vanity is a coquette and says1 ,what do you think of me8 and tremblingly awaits your verdict4 ,pride says1 ,i am as good as you are1 and ,i don't care a damn4 ,it is not every decadent ,countess who sells jam to keep her end up in this see-saw world4 ,it requires grit and a rare brand of pride uncommon in the quality to rise to the occasion4 ,there is a vain pride that welters into nothingness in the dismal hour of failure1 and starves tragically like a rat in a trap rather than help itself or accept help from others4 ,there is another pride--robust1 full-blooded pride--that spurns the conventionalities of caste1 takes off its coat and fights misfortune face to face resolutely for its daily bread1 and wins through4 ,this is where our heroic ,countess steps in splendour4 ,why immolate oneself on the altar of family pride8 ,a false goddess sits enshrined there on a false throne4 ,why live on the reputation a forefather won in the ,middle ,ages8 ,that reputation is now spent capital2 it is worthless scrip on the social market to-day4 ,build another reputation for yourself1 clean and sweet and new4 ,if ill luck drops you in the ditch1 to maintain inviolate the family honour you must get up and with ungloved hands work your way out of it like a man4 ,sell jam4 ,perhaps you hate wearing a brand-new reputation4 ,it sets on you like a misfitting coat4 ,you are an heir of the glorious past1 and exult on the length in your ancient lineage4 ,remember also you are a trustee of the splendid future2 the shining days to come demand your thoughtful consideration4 ,do rare credit to your sacred trust4 ,it is better to transmit honour to your descendants than to borrow fame from your ancestors4 ,it is better to be lovingly remembered than nobly born4 ,that grim old ancestor of yours who built the family fortune out of nothing and grimly fought every inch of the way up to renown single-handed would despise you for a poltroon lying derelict in the ditch of despair4 ,if the family fall throws you to the ground1 are you going to lie there indefinitely and rot like offal8 ,sell jam4 ,an ,italian nobleman went to ,america to repair his fallen fortunes4 ,he refused to soil his hands in trade2 his old family title was the magic key he carried to open the treasure-chests of the ,new ,world4 ,so he arrived in ,america armed with a despatch-box full of introductions to money magnates there4 ,he called upon a banker in ,new ,york1 and presented a letter of introduction4 ,the banker asked him what he knew about business4 ,nothing1 replied the nobleman2 ,i am a cavalry officer4 ,sorry ,i cannot help you1 said the banker2 the circus left our town yesterday4 ,the nobleman was floored4 ,enraged at the magnate's laconic insolence1 he destroyed all letters of introduction contained in his despatch-box and tackled the world on his own4 ,he folded up his family pedigree1 laid it in lavender1 went into the market and sold jam4 ,in the market-place a long head is a better weapon to fight with than a long pedigree4 ,he worked out his own salvation1 and returned home and lived contentedly amongst the orange-groves and sunshine of ,southern ,italy4 99,,viii99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,old ,,furniture99 ,eight old ,chippendale chairs and two settees sold recently at ,christie's for #e1fjj guineas1 and report says quickly after the auctioneer's hammer dismissed the lot they changed hands again at ,l#a1jjj profit to the buyer4 ,there must be great charm in old furniture when people scramble for it regardless of cost4 ,i suppose money is dull stuff to own heaps of unless you can exchange it for things that give the heart a passing thrill of pleasure 7the great sport is in the making it72 and the more money you make1 the more it takes you to work up the thrill4 ,a millionaire's smile is an expensive hobby to cultivate4 ,gathering a bunch of wild primroses in the sunny ,april woods gladdens the heart of a child amazingly1 and he dreams the pleasure over again in his sleep4 ,it costs over #e1jjj guineas to tingle the feelings of a rich man4 ,the child's outlay is more economical1 but it fetches as much enjoyment4 ,wherein lies the secret charm of old furniture8 ,i love it myself1 and for that reason ask the question for the pleasure given in answering it4 ,i am only a trifler in antiques1 possessing a few pieces of exquisite old oak of the seventeenth-century period2 also several pieces of walnut furniture which are old ,italian4 ,the ,italian pieces lie fallow in a villa just outside the barriera ,st4 ,domenico1 ,florence1 where we live with them half the year round4 ,beautiful old walnut furniture counts much more in its own homeland1 while the alien oak of ,england1 which we love here1 is cold and expressionless in the rooms of an ,italian villa on the sunny slopes of ,fiesole4 ,it loses its aura in a strange land4 ,old furniture with a time-worn glossy face on it is interesting because it is made by the hands of man2 and the man used his brain in making it1 as well as his hands2 surely man's delight is in man's work4 ,a piece of old furniture reflects the mind of its maker in every detail of its construction1 and that is a very fascinating feature to me2 for we are told on high authority that hand-work possesses character1 almost personality1 and we believe the high authority with all our heart4 ,modern furniture has no personality1 and so it transmits no message2 it is machine-made1 and ,i hold no kinship with machinery to cherish warm feeling in its favour2 but handcraft ever commands our respect1 and when well done wins our widest admiration4 ,machine-made work carries a lie on the face of it2 it imitates handwork4 ,the machine simulates a trouble that has not been taken4 ,it produces beautifully designed and ornamented imitations of ancient handcraft at trifling cost4 ,who cares for beauty produced by formula8 ,beauty is the flowering of noble labour linked to useful purpose4 ,cheapness and showiness are the flaring advertisements of the mechanical cabinet-maker to-day1 and he hits with precision the public taste4 ,give me to admire something a man has laboured lovingly and honestly to produce1 not what a machine vomits out standard pattern2 something a man has put the power of his brain into as well as the dexterity of his hand4 ,william ,morris quaintly remarks3 ,if you have anything to say1 you may as well put it into a chair or a table4 ,the cabinet-maker speaks to us with his tools in a language of his own invention4 ,the cabinet-maker has helped to make ,english homes comfortable to live in1 and for so doing we owe him a debt of gratitude4 ,his tools are not the sword and the cannon1 but the plane1 the chisel1 and the swift-moving saw4 ,his art is not destructive to life1 piling on misery to man's many woes1 but he enriches life manifold by adding comfort and luxury to the widening circle of human happiness4 ,his rewards are not stars and garters and hereditary honours conferred by princes for brave deeds done on the field of battle1 but just the recompense that the master of the tools' true play appreciates2 the simple pleasure of good work well and truly done sent forth to take honourable place in the stately homes of ,england1 knowing that by such fine hand-craft he will speak from his grave to people unborn2 and he even cherishes the inspiring hope that those who are possessors of his treasured work done in oak and walnut and sweet satinwood will1 in the hereafterward1 in the quietude of their sequestered homes1 surrounded by familiar furniture of high lineage1 bestow on the workman a passing measure of praise2 for these worthy craftsmen put the best of their lives into the labour of their hands4 ,old furniture is delightful in your home because it is old4 ,age has an alchemy of its own that ennobles the work of man4 ,a brand-new house is deadly unromantic1 even if it is a dream of architectural excellence4 ,its appearance is garish and crude4 ,new stones and raw bricks are ugly in the days of their youth1 but age transforms the place1 be it manor-house or thatched cottage1 until enchantment haunts the fabric4 ,i dearly love the grace of antiquity that mellows the venerable homesteads of ,england and blends the intermingling lustre of tradition with the roll of their lengthening years4 ,age likewise has a mellowing influence on furniture4 ,obliteration of exactitude of form is essential charm in it as it is in a man or woman4 ,you resent the loudness of a newly made rich man4 ,his manners smell strongly of varnish just put on2 his vanity and self-importance are unsavoury morsels to swallow without salt4 ,he is a terror to his polite neighbours and a stranger to himself4 ,wait and see2 he will tone down as the mills of life grind off the sharp angles and smooth him into a decent fellow4 ,good taste resents primness and self-assertiveness in new furniture2 its raw outlines and sharp angles offend the eye4 ,when these stubborn features are subdued by centuries of wear and tear and the wondrous old-time bloom of rich deep colour glorifies the ripened oak with softness and transparency of tone1 that quality so delightful to sight and touch which distinguishes genuine antique furniture1 then sentimental feeling waxes strong and renders the work attractive to us4 ,vague and visionary thoughts of past owners flit across the mind1 and kindle emotions in the presence of an ancient piece of furniture of good repute4 ,it idealizes in our minds1 and becomes beautiful to us4 ,it is a call of the past4 ,it is an unwritten chapter in some old family history1 and we want to handle the key of the legend locked up in it4 ,there may be tragedy or comedy1 or a mixture of both1 recorded in the family log-book1 and the stately old carved-oak court cupboard dozing in the banqueting-hall1 generation after generation1 saw it all through from beginning to end1 but it whispers away no family secrets to inquisitive people4 ,an evil day broke the family fortunes4 ,the venerable court cupboard vacated its place of honour which it occupied for centuries in the ,yorkshire manor-house1 and has taken up quarters with us in our ,sussex home4 ,it is no longer mere chattel2 there is human interest in it4 ,i wonder if it takes kindly to its new home8 ,land1 they say1 sometimes resents change of owners1 especially passing from a family who had held lordship of the soil for generations4 ,when the old squire dies1 the last of his line1 the land grieves4 ,it seems to know that it is going to be sold and broken up1 and it loses heart4 ,it goes rotten like apples4 ,a patch goes wrong here and a patch goes wrong there1 and the rottenness spreads and runs together4 ,it takes the land long to get used to a new master4 ,has our old oak court cupboard sensitive feelings like the ancestral acres8 ,or is it silently and sullenly indifferent to all the changes of fortune that befall it8 ,i have an oak armchair with a unique story to tell4 ,the back of it is one large panel carved with heavy flora and foliated decoration2 on the cross-rail below the panel is carved in bold raised letters3 #af ,,ellin ,,ryland #id ,the two arms are bountifully carved1 and the carving terminates in a large ,tudor rose forming a knob at the end of each arm4 ,the arm-tops1 through constant use1 are smooth and shine like unto burnished bronze4 ,the supports and front legs are twisted in good ,jacobean manner1 and the broad stretcher is carved with two long feathery1 flowing acanthus-leaves curling round gracefully at the tips as if under pressure of a strong breeze1 and crouching within their embrace nestles a rose in ambush4 ,the chair has been mothered with lifelong care1 and the bloom and beauty of age sit upon it like a crown of glory4 ,so ,ellin ,ryland has won for her name immortality among the roses4 ,we often think of ,ellin and question the chair about her1 but information does not flow freely from that quarter4 ,did ,ellin order the chair from the cabinet-maker herself8 ,i think not2 perhaps her lover gave it her on her birthday1 or her husband on their wedding-day4 ,no doubt the chair's existence celebrates a red-letter day in the annals of the family4 ,the name now is only a legend to us1 but there it is1 legible after the flight of two hundred and twenty years4 ,the old chair is a better monument to ,ellin ,ryland's memory than a stone slab in a damp churchyard1 with her name graven on it in crumbling letters4 ,i dare say ,ellin had a thin slice of vanity in her nature2 we all have1 and would like our names printed somewhere imperishably4 ,during two hundred and twenty years the moss and lichen1 the sun and the frost1 conspire together to obliterate any lettering in churchyard stones1 but the writing in tablet-oak on the armchair is as brave as ever4 ,the name is only a legend1 but it keeps her memory green4 ,i do not turn my house into a museum of antiques1 but certainly ,i choose interesting old furniture to live with where choice is possible2 it has a cheery influence on your temper4 ,i love to walk amongst my treasures and touch them with my hand and admire their cloistered beauty4 ,i started housekeeping in ,victorian days1 after the orthodox manner of ,englishmen about to marry1 by buying new furniture4 ,to get the genuine article ,i bought it in framework and had it upholstered and finished at home1 under my eye4 ,as years rolled on1 piece by piece the ,victorian furniture vanished from our rooms and old pieces supplanted them1 and the rooms grew pleasant to look upon and cosy to sit in4 ,your furniture has a subtle influence on your disposition4 ,you live with it daily all the year round as you do with your wife1 and you married her because she was the girl you loved best in the world1 and since the wedding-day her influence has coloured your life more than you can measure and contributed mysteriously to make you the manner of man you are4 ,your furniture adds much to your pleasure and quiet enjoyment of home life if you have the right sort4 ,old furniture with quietness of line is the best to live with--it is suggestive of repose4 ,i love old furniture because its workmanship is artistic4 ,style in a chair or table is the all-important thing4 ,a piece of furniture1 however simple in design1 if it is wrought artistically1 stimulates the imagination1 arouses the emotions1 and provokes endless delight in the connoisseur4 ,we are keen observers to-day1 and curious over work done centuries ago4 ,we handle a well-bred piece of furniture with respect as we trace the skill shown in beauty of line2 the eye travels joyously over its well-balanced proportions and hovers with admirance over its downright dexterity of carving4 ,no literal copy of antique furniture made in the forcing factories of to-day has feeling in it4 ,it is very accurate in line and detail but it lacks expression1 and that is where the artistic spirit enters1 that is where the charm holds us4 ,as old ,higgery the carpenter explained himself out of it when ,lord ,louis ,lewis complimented him on being the finest carpenter of his age3 ,ah1 sir1 he replied1 ,chippendale was the finest cabinet-maker of his age and ,sheraton of his2 but they went beyond that4 ,they had the ,idea4 ,i can use my tools as well as either of them--better1 maybe1 for 'tis a subtle thing to give a semblance of age to a new piece1 but ,i haven't got the ,idea1 and never had4 ,if the imagination had gone with the craft1 ,king ,george might have seen his period of furniture as well as any of the others4 ,chippendale and ,sheraton were without doubt the cleverest cabinet-makers of their age2 but many an unnamed workman of their period has left us the splendid legacy of his ideas in furniture which is scattered over the comfortable homes of ,england1 with no pedigree attached except the imprimatur of a master craftsman's genius4 ,speaking of artistic furniture1 ,i do not mean elaborate furniture overladen with a heavy ornament which confuses its lines and perverts its beauty into vulgarity4 ,simplicity is the fairest form of art4 ,simplicity consists not so much in plainness of production as in singleness of purpose4 ,the essence of simplicity is the absence of self-consciousness4 ,a combination of simplicity of character and great artistic power is difficult to find1 but when found it is the most perfect combination and produces finest work4 ,art is often self-conscious1 and quickly runs to seed in superfluous ornamentation4 ,the ,louis ,quinze style is unwholesome as poison4 ,it is brilliantly clever1 but it is fascinatingly demoralizing4 ,it reflects in art the luxury and insincerity1 the licentiousness and effeminacy of the age that invented it4 ,gaudy and overornamented furniture is teasingly self-conscious1 and conceited stuff to live with4 ,its lines are vulgar and sensuous curves4 ,it is always staring at you1 grinning at you1 ogling you1 and saying1 ,observe me1 and admire4 ,just the very character of the frivolous women1 the ,pompadour and the ,du ,barri1 who ruled the voluptuous ,court of ,louis ,,xv41 and who squandered the royal revenues in extravagance of art and craft1 so that the artist's taste was wasted in riotous designing and the craftsman's skill debased in excesses of ornament4 ,sumptuous furniture and splendid apparel are closely wedded together1 and cannot be separated with success4 ,if ,i lived among ,louis ,quinze furniture ,i should often see in the room with me ghosts of gallant courtiers1 dressed in long silk coats1 embellished with gold braid1 and vests of rainbow hue1 with cravats and ruffs of billowy lace1 carrying at their hips a long rapier1 and toying with a bejewelled snuff-box as they moved noiselessly with an elegant devil-may-care swagger1 mixing with superbly decorated marqueterie cabinets and tables and bronze statuettes and ,sevres china bleu du roi2 and shadowy ladies of high degree would be there1 wearing capacious and flowery dresses and powdered hair1 sitting in the chequered light of evening on seats richly upholstered in pale rose ,gobelin tapestry1 smiling dreamily on the exquisites of the old regime--all of them fatally gifted mortals with manners polished as the hard1 shining surface of the parquet floor they gaily tread3 the whole scene a vision glorious1 composing an harmonious blend of colour1 grace1 and beauty4 ,modern men lounging in tweed ,norfolk jackets1 or dressed sombre in black swallow-tail coats1 with a cigarette lolling on their lips1 and ladies tailored into close-fitting costumes of neutral tints1 however beautiful in themselves1 would be completely out of the picture4 ,a peculiar reason why old furniture is coveted by many people is because it is fashionable and scarce4 ,the quantity that remains in the country1 drawn from the homes of our easy-going port-wine-drinking ,georgian forefathers1 is decreasing1 and buyers are increasing1 so competition runs riot for really good pieces4 ,there is plenty of worthless old furniture for sale1 as there are worthless ,old ,masters asking for buyers4 ,americans are the greedy collectors who raid the market with their unlimited dollars and pay sensational prices for the prize pieces to adorn their town houses in ,new ,york or ,chicago4 ,collecting is a fascinating hobby4 ,i have found pleasure hunting for antiques far away from the heated atmosphere of ,christie's auction-rooms4 ,the joy of the chase is great1 and the habit grows upon you4 ,i have made many enjoyable excursions into the country with a clear-cut object in view which gives zest to the journey4 ,rummaging through second-hand shops in the back streets of provincial towns or in out-of-the-way villages searching for spoil is an alluring pastime to indulge in1 and if you love the country through which you travel for the country's sake you will be very happy on the trail1 and want to go again whether much or little plunder falls to your quest4 ,old cathedral towns yield the best results4 ,there are many sleepy second-hand shops loitering round the cathedral waiting for customers to step in after visiting the sacred fane4 ,there is much lumber and little treasure in most of them2 but if you don't find what you want1 in looking for it you may find something that pleases you better1 like the man who was digging a hole in his garden to bury a dead dog and unburied a ,greek statue of ,venus4 ,calling at the smart antique dealers' spacious establishments in ,london is an edition de luxe version of the same story4 ,here choice pieces are assembled1 polished and poised adroitly to arrest attention4 ,some of these elegant salons resemble museums2 the surroundings breathe order1 calm1 refinement4 ,prices rule high as the aristocratic character of the place you visit4 ,nothing is cheap in these sanctuaries of the old nobility of furniture and art treasure except courtesy and affability1 which are supplied gratis by the faultlessly accoutred gentleman of the department1 who checks you on entering and conducts you round4 ,any object you look at he explains for your edification4 ,he rivals the showman at ,windsor ,castle or the ,tower of ,london for knowing his part and throwing at you torrents of information as he strides along4 ,he revels in it1 and his importance and intelligence mesmerize you and keep most of your five senses stirring4 ,you admire him as an oracle of antique lore1 and listen to him with fear and trembling4 ,his beaming smile encourages you to live1 and politely you ask another question4 ,here the business of selling is practised as a fine art4 ,the attendant is so well bred1 well groomed1 so condescending and obliging you feel yourself a criminal if you escape him without making a purchase4 ,you say3 ,i should like to go back and see that satinwood chair again4 ,ah1 he replies1 that is a most interesting piece2 ,king ,edward often sat in that chair4 ,it belonged to the ,hon4 ,oliver ,grimes1 a great friend of ,king ,edward2 it was the ,king's favourite seat when he visited the ,hon4 ,oliver at ,redcote ,manor4 ,and here is the oak table you admired so much as we passed along4 ,we know the pedigree of it4 ,it came from ,monkwood ,hall1 ,derbyshire4 ,it has been in possession of the family since the year #afbj4 ,we bought it at the ,hall last week1 and so it has never been in the trade4 ,how beautifully the frieze is carved2 what a fine patina it has formed2 it shines like a mirror2 surely the butler must have polished it every week when he waxed the oak floor4 ,it has never been damaged or repaired2 it is genuine all over4 ,it is a precious and faultless piece of ,jacobean oak1 and the price is only4446 ,there are dangers and pitfalls besetting the buyer of old furniture4 ,even in the garden of antiques a slimy serpent spoils the smiling landscape4 ,fraud is not unknown side by side with honest dealing4 ,not all furniture is old as it looks4 ,that is where that predatory rascal called the faker creeps in and preys upon humanity in general and the innocent amateur in particular4 ,there are sly manufactories of old furniture busy to-day in shoddy workshops1 building up immaculate high-grade chairs1 tables1 cabinets1 out of oddments of oak and mahogany collected from the scrap-heap of broken and decayed furniture4 ,new wood is added in parts where necessary to complete the transformation1 and when these modern antiques are blended1 stained to harmonize in colour1 and a glowing patina rubbed on by the artful dodgers1 it takes a keen eye to detect the villainy of the deed1 as that arch-swindler ,gaspero ,bandini said to his fellow-conspirator3 ,we must make it as antique as possible3 we must sell the old wine with the dust on the bottle4 ,there is no fixed market value to old furniture as there is to postage-stamps or ,war ,loan stock4 ,the dealer sets his own price on his goods1 and the cupidity of the public guides him how best to do it4 ,he is a keen observer of human nature1 and plays up to its little weaknesses for his own advantage1 and he does it smilingly4 ,it is wonderful how environment works on our feelings and baffles our judgment4 ,in the twinkling of an eye it changes the value we place on things4 ,dress the same man in two different suits of clothes1 and you have all the difference in our cursory opinion between a lord and a tinker4 ,the same article exhibited in shop-windows ,east or ,west of ,london changes its value appreciably1 and we are blindly content to buy in the dearest market if it is the most elegant1 and fancy we get full value for money4 ,i know a man in ,florence who wanted an old ,tuscan table1 and he padded round the city looking for one4 ,in a small shop where much furniture was crowded into little space he saw the article that pleased him4 ,the dealer asked twenty-four pounds for it4 ,he tried to beat down the price1 but the dealer would not humour him1 so he left without buying4 ,presently a large dealer in antiques entered the shop1 fancied the table1 and paid twenty-four pounds for it straightway1 and removed it to his own premises1 which are spacious and commanding4 ,the man in quest of a ,tuscan table visited the spacious premises and saw the table in its grander home1 fell in love with it again1 and bought it for forty pounds4 ,afterward he told the dealer in the small shop that he had found the table he wanted at ,mr4 ,so-and-so's1 and1 quite elated1 he described his purchase4 ,yes1 ,i know about it1 replied the rejected dealer4 ,you have paid forty pounds for the table ,i offered to sell you for twenty-four4 ,the buyer looked foolish1 and said3 ,but it was so much better displayed at ,mr4 ,so-and-so's shop that ,i did not recognize it being the same table2 it looked worth twenty pounds more in his place than it did in yours4 ,the auction-mart frequently governs the price of old furniture and gives it an upward lift4 ,the psychology of the auction-room is an interesting study4 ,the loaded atmosphere of the place has a compelling influence that gets the better of one's judgment4 ,in a shop a man scoffs at the tall price of a piece of furniture and haggles doggedly with the dealer to reduce it thirty shillings2 in the auction-room if the same piece were offered he would compete with the crowd to raise the price of it incontinently4 ,it is the consistent conduct of inconsistent human nature4 ,it is that bellicose little devil who hides himself at the bottom of every human being1 impelling him down into the danger zone to fight1 who is guilty of the rash and feckless deed4 ,a man enters the auction-room in a happy1 breezy frame of mind1 not to buy1 just to look on and see what things are fetching4 ,the serpent of the place tempts him1 and he is a lost soul4 ,his good resolutions evaporate like water on a hot plate1 leaving no trace behind4 ,the fighting impulse in him leaps up1 and he bids and bids again1 and eventually he finds himself the possessor of a rare old mahogany bureau hatched in the reign of our ,king ,george1 but inadvertently described in the catalogue as a masterpiece of the cabinet-maker's craft composed in the times of ,queen ,anne6 99,,ix99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,personality99 ,personal influence is a subtle impalpable sovereign power that man possesses2 sometimes it possesses the man1 for influence often is an unconscious element in his life which exhales from him like the fragrance from a flower or miasma from a swamp4 ,you cannot investigate it4 ,it is moral force4 ,some men possess much of it1 others less1 the residue of mankind none4 ,that is the mystery of influence4 ,you cannot regulate it1 calculate it1 or tabulate it in standard quantities4 ,its operation is noiseless as a shadow1 dangerous as lightning1 profound as eternity1 beautiful as the five wise virgins1 or devilish as ,mephistopheles4 ,we speak here of personal influence4 ,there is an influence of a baser sort which is powerful in its way--the influence of money4 ,money is extraneous matter4 ,wealth magnifies a man in people's eyes1 but the man himself may be small without the money inflation4 ,strip the rich man of his shekels1 and you strip him of his significance4 ,he counts no more than an empty egg-shell after the rats have eaten the meat out of it4 ,frequently the extraordinary man is only an ordinary man placed in extraordinary circumstances4 ,there is also the influence of position4 ,that is not the genuine article4 ,it is alien honour conferred like the odour of attar of roses clinging to an empty earthen jar4 ,position gives power4 ,some people who sit in the chair of authority use their power to the full1 but it is the power of position1 not of character or individuality4 ,the only advantage of power is to be able to do more good than other people4 ,all the world knows the difference1 the ghastly difference1 between ,cardinal ,wolsey in favour and ,cardinal ,wolsey in disgrace4 ,catastrophe lies between these extremes of fortune4 ,the man remains the same in both states1 but the world moves with the times1 and gives no credit to an overrun banking account4 ,he is a fallen star4 ,he drops out of the seventh heaven of popularity into abysmal darkness4 ,banished the ,royal presence1 who cares for ,cardinal ,wolsey8 ,he has no favours to transmit4 ,no man is his friend1 for he can befriend no man4 ,position makes and unmakes a man1 like sunshine makes or unmakes a summer day4 ,influence of truest and finest brand is personal4 ,it emanates from the man1 not from his circumstances4 ,some men handle their fellow-creatures with dexterity and ease1 like an experienced whip controls the horse he sits behind4 ,quietness and firmness are in the human touch1 and the animal bends submissively to every movement of the reins2 so some men command their fellow-creatures1 and they submit their wills to the master mind that rides them1 and how the spell governs they cannot say4 ,other men are ciphers in society4 ,only ,mr4 ,so-and-so consigns a man to the outposts of social extinction1 and mixes him up with the unclassified masses of limp1 negligible1 and insignificant people who welter and gambol with their kennel companions1 but they cannot head the pack on hunting days4 ,influential men are not common in the community4 ,only the elect few shine2 many are reflectors of borrowed light4 ,influence is a gift4 ,it is caught1 not taught4 ,it is all decided for us when nestlings in the cradle1 and perhaps before we nestle4 ,the schoolboy unconsciously wields a mystic power in the playground1 and his chums hover round him as king of the revels4 ,animal magnetism exudes from every pore of his youthful skin4 ,he leads in every escapade1 and others fall in without question4 ,he is not taught the trick2 it comes natural for him to lead as for the rank and file to follow4 ,on what principle ,nature bestows her favours it is difficult to hazard1 more difficult than to discover what principle guides the ,british ,government in distributing her coveted decorations to the ,british public4 ,nature is romantic4 ,exercising her sovereignty she gives her honours as she pleases4 ,no money can buy them4 ,blue-blooded pedigrees have no preferential tariff4 ,nature mocks our conventionality1 spurns our orders of merit1 and winks at our social somebodies4 ,often she openly prefers a costermonger to a ,king--stamps aristocratic grace on a gipsy1 and refuses it to a ,duchess4 ,there are insignificant great men who would be hustled in a crowd if they wore no badge1 while to social nobodies ,nature attaches a halo of distinction which the crowd delights to honour as subjects offer incense to a ,king4 ,personality is an attribute that carries a man far on the road to success4 ,personality is an endowment which proclaims a man one of ,nature's aristocrats4 ,it is ,nature's advertisement of her best1 and she is proud of her handiwork4 ,personality is a fascinating asset2 it lends dignity to common clay2 it gives a man a standing outside the crowd1 which he occupies with ineffable content and full advantage to himself4 ,some people have an air about them1 and the atmosphere they move in is intoxicating to those dwelling under the spell of their presence4 ,you cannot crush people who have personality4 ,over and over again it turns the scales in their favour in the competitions of life4 ,their virtues may not be of the celestial1 their talent may lack glitter1 but their personality grips you with its pomp and splendour1 and they sit amongst the mighty1 imposing themselves on gods and men4 ,the envious man admits their success1 and slurringly says3 ,they are commonplace3 there is nothing astonishing in them except their success4 ,he consoles himself with the banal reflection that1 other things being equal1 he is quite as good as they4 ,but the strange mystery of presence steps in and prevents other things ever being equal4 ,some men lack engaging personality1 they have no physical charm or force1 yet they exert strenuous influence4 ,they possess great mental or moral qualities4 ,there is a ,divine spark in the clay that scintillates and collects attention4 ,they are luminous bodies1 and emit light4 ,they are men with virtue in them1 and virtue flows out of them4 ,the extremely fascinating character of ,jesus ,christ moves in splendour adown the ages1 giving out vital energy4 ,it draws men to-day irresistibly1 as it constrained men nearly two thousand years ago to follow ,him homeless and penniless through the highways and by-ways of ,palestine1 without worldly honour or pay to recompense them4 ,there is a strange1 silent1 penetrating1 perplexing1 yet mighty influence working round about us2 it is the influence of the life of ,christ holding us up4 ,i do not mean ,his life as crudely reflected to us in the modern ,church4 ,jesus ,christ has a larger influence outside the ,church than in it4 ,christ would be a stranger in the sanctuary to-day if ,he visited it as the peasant of ,galilee4 ,jesus ,christ never commissioned ,his disciples to build up in the world such a colossal organization as the ,church has swollen itself into with windy pride4 ,in every country in ,europe the ,church is the biggest business concern and the wealthiest institution1 the most aristocratic society and the most retrogressive force4 ,the national ,churches are slavishly worldly and chastely genteel concerns2 they would boycott the kingdom of ,christ if they thought it were trying to enter the world through their gilded gates4 ,the kingdom of ,christ is democratic4 ,it might interfere with tithes and endowments and vested interests4 ,i fancy ,christ will establish ,his kingdom without calling in the ,church to help ,him4 ,i could not picture ,christ making use of a ,bishop in knee-breeches1 lawn sleeves1 and with a seat in the ,house of ,lords1 when engaging disciples to evangelize the world4 ,but ,i can picture ,christ falling speechless when brought face to face with a ,bishop geared in full canonical uniform2 and if in ,his ignorance of ecclesiastical functionaries ,jesus politely inquired1 ,who is the aristocratic old gentleman wearing knee-breeches and a broad-brimmed hat1 and to what institution does he belong8 on being told he was speaking to one of the leading representatives of ,his own spiritual institution1 ,i can picture ,christ melting away in anguish of heart from the venerable presence of the great divine to solace ,himself in the company of fishermen and mechanics--men whose hearts are warm and manners natural1 even if their creed is a bit unorthodox from the ecclesiastical standpoint4 ,and there is the good ,st4 ,francesco1 the stainless and blameless saint1 born of the little ,tuscan hill city1 the perpetual flowering rose of ,assisi1 whose godly fragrance gives off for ever to sweeten the life of mankind--,st4 ,francis of ,assisi1 the humble child of ,god1 the dear brother of men1 dead these five hundred years gone by2 but he is now lying warm upon the lap of ,christendom1 nursed for one of the noblest1 gentlest spirits1 aglow with the fervour of an endless life4 ,he is a living1 controlling force to-day in the world's long battle for righteousness1 and ever pouring into our ears the sweetness of ,christ4 ,men are governed more wisely by the dead than by the living4 ,interned within the calmness of their shades1 the mighty dead speak to us1 and no cross-currents of envy1 prejudice1 or malice ruffle the serenity of their counsel4 ,influence is not always beneficent2 it is malignant sometimes1 and contaminates like the plague4 ,evil qualities can be as attractive as wholesome virtues4 ,the poets brand the ,devil with a commanding personality4 ,john ,wilkes1 the notorious demagogue in the reign of ,george ,,iii41 was the ugliest man in ,england1 yet he impressed himself marvellously on his generation4 ,he was a popular hero2 he possessed natural gaiety of disposition and an irrepressible fund of impudence and wit4 ,he was the most brilliant controversialist of his day4 ,he was a charming rake with an insinuating smile1 and he wore the manners of a fine ,english gentleman1 which captivated his enemies and conciliated the ,king4 ,he had exceptional powers of fascination1 and he boasted that--ugly as he was--with the start of a quarter of an hour he could get the better of any man1 however good-looking1 in the graces of any lady4 99,x99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,nice ,,people99 ,our friend ,mrs4 ,alinson took me sharply in hand one day1 and tendered me good advice gratuitously over the tea-table4 ,mrs4 ,alinson is a lady magnificent in bulk1 energetic in action1 torrential in tongue1 and warm-hearted in disposition1 second to none amongst the daughters of men4 ,when as a young man ,i first came to town she adopted me1 mothered me socially1 and manoeuvred for my success4 ,she did not approve of my associates1 and rated me soundly in her loud1 pushful1 stridulant voice1 which commands attention3 ,mr4 ,drake is not a desirable acquaintance for you to pursue1 my dear4 ,he don't belong to our set1 and his reputation is tainted2 unpleasant rumours cloud round his name4 ,take my advice and cut him4 ,you only want to know nice people4 ,shrewd1 disinterested1 motherly advice for ,mrs4 ,alinson to bestow on a tenderfoot unfamiliar with the pitfalls of society4 ,surely only a lady of sweet discerning disposition could give it2 a lady whom everybody loves and whom nobody gainsays2 a lady the final arbiter of taste in nice people who opens the door to a new-comer and no man shuts1 who shuts the door on a new-comer and no man opens4 ,i accepted her dictum as good current coin of the elect world we moved in1 to be honoured without reserve4 ,its metal rang genuine on the social counter4 ,mr4 ,drake henceforth is a stranger to me2 it would imperil my position in society to know him4 ,after tea we parted1 and ,i went to the cinema4 ,i often go to a cinema because it amuses me when ,i want amusement4 ,it is light and inexpensive diversion4 ,superior people sneer at the cinema1 and call it low-grade amusement3 a common glanty-show that pleases common people4 ,however1 as ,i have no shares in music-halls or wasting investments in theatre-land1 ,i am impartial in my pleasures1 and can take a shilling seat in a picture palace with clean conscience and merry heart4 ,in the cinema we met our dear friend ,lady ----1 who was enjoying the moving pictures4 ,she invited us to her reception on the following ,saturday afternoon2 at the conclusion of the show1 when parting from her1 she said3 ,it's very kind of you to promise for next ,saturday4 ,please don't tell ,mrs4 ,alinson you are coming1 or she will be sure to come too1 and ,i don't want her4 ,the friends ,i am inviting don't care to meet her4 ,this was a staggering blow struck at the serene goddess to whom we bent the obedient knee4 ,was there another social kingdom where she had no sovereignty1 where her passing shadow1 like a malign influence1 was a thing to be shunned8 ,was she a false goddess1 or no goddess at all8 ,she pictured herself the controlling hand which steered the current of gay life in our midst4 ,was she at the helm1 or was it a mild illusion that muddled her amiable brain8 ,here are people actually who will not open their doors to receive her1 nor permit her feet to tread their dusty carpet--and she thought omnipotence was in her nod4 ,these colliding facts perplexed us4 ,they suggested the ridiculous1 and offer food for reflection on the comedy of human manners4 ,here1 on the one hand1 is a portrait we draw of ourselves1 and there opposite hangs on the wall a portrait other people draw of us4 ,place these two sketches side by side and consider1 do they represent the same person8 ,is there resemblance between them enough to establish identity in a ,british court of law8 ,how can there be8 ,we do not see ourselves as others see us4 ,we each observe the interesting object that engages our attention from different points of the compass4 ,we see our good points of character and make the best of them2 our neighbours detect our little sins and make the worst of them4 ,so we clothe ourselves in sunlight and paint our neighbours drab4 ,mrs4 ,alinson1 fortunate woman1 had no glimmering idea what other people thought of her2 it was not given her to see herself as others see her4 ,she lives stolidly2 eats1 drinks1 dresses1 talks1 surrounded by a shining halo of self-complacency through which her mentality cannot penetrate4 ,she is good-natured1 thinks excellently of herself1 and believes other people's feelings towards her are equally well disposed4 ,you and ,i1 happily1 are unconscious of the quaint esteem in which our neighbours hold us1 and wisely there we ring the curtain down4 ,if the truth were told1 half our acquaintances are our enemies--behind our backs4 ,soon after the split in the ,liberal party on the first ,home ,rule ,bill1 which sundered so many political friendships1 ,frank ,holl was painting the portrait of ,john ,bright4 ,he mentioned to his sitter that he was about to paint the portrait of ,mr4 ,gladstone4 ,it must be a very painful thing to you1 ,mr4 ,bright1 he hazarded1 that after all these years of comradeship you two should sever your connection8 ,indeed it is1 replied ,bright with a sigh2 to think that after we have so long worked together we should be forced apart in the evening of our lives6 ,and by what8 ,a bogy that has risen up within him1 beckoning him away from duty and sense4 ,do you know1 ,mr4 ,holl1 ,i seriously fear that my dear old friend's mind is giving way4 ,when the artist was at ,hawarden painting ,mr4 ,gladstone1 the subject of ,mr4 ,bright's portrait cropped up4 ,ah6 said ,mr4 ,gladstone1 and how did you find him8 ,fairly well2 and he spoke very affectionately of you1 ,mr4 ,gladstone4 ,did he indeed8 replied the sitter sorrowfully4 ,it was a cruel blow that parted us--and on so clear a question1 too6 ,tell me1 ,mr4 ,holl--and here his lips quivered1 for he was evidently moved with strong emotion--tell me1 did you notice anything in the manner of my old friend which would lead you to suppose that his reason was becoming unhinged8 ,we cannot see another man's personality in full rounded vision4 ,we get peeps at him2 broken lights and flickering shadows of his character dance before us4 ,we chase the shadow1 and think we can capture the man and rifle him of his every locked-up thought and uncover his soul's nakedness4 ,the popular writer analyzes1 probes1 dissects human character on paper1 and we marvel at his subtlety in reading so far into people4 ,he plucks the gay plumage off the poor bird he has trapped1 and leaves the stripped and quivering body an unpleasant spectacle for the public to contemplate through the glass case of a six-shilling novel4 ,the novelist is a crude1 fumbling workman at his trade4 ,his hand is too clumsy for his tools4 ,he dissects his paper dolls as they pass before him in a paper world1 but the tangled1 unbalanced1 erratic human being pulsing with mystic life1 even his next-door neighbour1 baffles him on the doorstep4 ,the novelist is a cunning artist1 but an unskilful philosopher4 ,he works like ,conan ,doyle's great detective ,sherlock ,holmes1 who can unravel any mystery he himself concocts in the pages of the ,strand ,magazine1 but is no use to ,scotland ,yard in tracking a real murderer or laying bare an elusive crime4 ,if some famous men who in their day and generation lived in cheap houses and mixed with common people1 and died unparagraphed in daily papers1 could see themselves now1 as we see them1 promoted to illustrious companionship with the mighty dead1 their heads would spin with amazement at themselves for having arrived in splendour2 they would stagger at the worship paid them by reverent posterity4 ,during life they were great artists in mufti4 ,they were regarded as unimportant persons by their own contemporaries1 and to-day they are posted amongst the demi-gods of history4 ,they knew themselves to be good workmen who did a good day's work for a fair day's pay1 and then1 like other honest day-labourers1 at nightfall1 with clean consciences1 they laid down their tools1 and their life-story ended there4 ,they little knew that they had the bud of immortality swelling in their veins1 soon to break and flower into endless renown4 ,human nature is a conundrum to itself hard to crack1 as it is to other people1 even its friends and neighbours who eat and drink with it at table4 ,we do not know that heaps of posthumous fame may presently cover our strange next-door neighbour4 ,to us he is only a negligible quantity in the affairs of the day1 with a little gift of the pen or some queer scientific hobby that absorbs him4 ,in this swift age of ours ,time and ,space are being brought to heel in masterly control1 but our neighbours remain mysterious to us as ,adam was to ,eve until the affair of the apple found the man out4 ,even ,shakespeare to his contemporaries did not appear a towering genius1 but only one of themselves--a common literary hack with an uncommon gift of turning a sentence and making it tell4 ,it was a trick they all tried to catch from him1 but he just went one better than they4 ,shakespeare's fellow-craftsmen were unconscious that they were entertaining an archangel unawares4 ,nothing he said or did outside his scribbling for the playhouse is on record4 ,he had no trusty ,boswell at his elbow to note his pothouse wit and succulent wisdom1 sparks from the fire of his genius1 flung off impromptu in merry moments at the ,mermaid ,tavern over a flagon of malmsey4 ,his pals thought him a jovial fellow well met1 and when he died no crumbs of biography were swept up by loving hands to keep his memory green4 ,but strangest of all1 did ,shakespeare think much of himself8 ,he was utterly careless of the fate of his own literary labours4 ,he never published one of his own plays4 ,after his death the stage copies of his plays were carefully collected together by two prudent men1 ,heming and ,condell1 with an eye to business4 ,seven years later the first folio edition of ,shakespeare's plays appeared in print4 ,the first edition is full of glaring blunders1 compiled as it was from the stage versions--the manuscripts that the players used in the theatres4 ,those well-thumbed dog-eared copies of the plays1 very interesting documents to own if one could be placed on the market to-day3 worn and torn1 scored with erasures1 interlined with emendations1 stained with spilt wine and small beer1 greasy with handling of midnight study1 and crumpled after pouching in the players' pockets cheek by jowl with incongruous trifles--could you expect literary finish to adorn these fugitive children of the playhouse8 ,ever since that day learned commentators have laboured assiduously correcting the text of the plays and combing out the tangle1 quarrelling fraternally amongst themselves over the correct word for the place and the correct place for a word4 ,the quarrel of the commentators still flourishes1 for the muddle of the text has yet to be tidied up4 99,,xi99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,new ,,democracy99 ,democracy is the rising star1 mounting clear and bright over falling kingdoms and toppling empires4 ,crowns are going cheap in the market to-day1 and the divine right of kings is a broken weapon flung in the mud of the world's scorn and picked up as a toy for ,punch to provoke laughter4 ,the old nobility is losing its ancient charter to sit exclusive in the high places of honour1 and the common people--the new caste--are coming into possession and power4 ,the working-man must be tailored to the grand part he plays in history4 ,he will feel uneasy perhaps wearing his first new dress suit--it will worry him like a misfit4 ,but clothes add splendour to our common lot4 ,with the salvation of the country dependent on his nod he must cast the stodgy cloth cap that clowns his head on bank holidays and nod heroically to the admirers who retinue his movements4 ,democracy is the unknown god it will be fashionable to worship when the war is over4 ,now we are all wasting ink and paper and taxing our small brains prophesying what the world will be like in the flowering-time of peace1 when everybody will become deliriously happy1 wise1 and good4 ,we shall move more cautiously then1 like a cat stepping circumspectly over broken glass on top of the garden wall4 ,we will make no mistakes1 as we did in the feckless past1 bringing us not only bleeding feet1 but wounded hearts4 ,there must be no party politics in the land as there used to be when politicians sold their country to buy their party into power1 and sold themselves to keep the power which they had bought4 ,everyone will want to do good to his neighbour1 and our neighbour will want to do good to himself1 and so social reform now and henceforth is the compelling idea that holds the public fancy4 ,but no two social reformers think alike or advance the same doctrines of reform1 although the same idea dominates the mind of all the doctrinaires4 ,an idea is an abstract1 invisible1 impalpable1 thing that enters into the mind of man naked and unadorned4 ,before exposing this naked idea to public observation it must be clothed and attractively dressed4 ,confusion comes in with the clothes4 ,fashions in clothes differ so that the same idea differently dressed appears to be a different object4 ,however1 it is not4 ,ideas do not differ3 it is the expression of them that differs4 ,it is when you clothe your idea with words and deck it in literary plumage that the mischief stalks in and divergent opinions clash and confound us4 ,we all believe in ,utopia1 but none of us hold the clue to the high road that gallops straight into it4 ,we take trial trips over new ground and get sloughed up on false trails4 ,plato and ,socrates1 ,francesco d',assisi and ,philip ,sydney1 ,ruskin and ,tolstoi1 have each been famous architects of ,utopia in the dim dreamland of the past1 and each propounded his own scheme as being the very healthiest and happiest earthly paradise ever constructed for man to dwell in4 ,they all have some aims and ends in common1 considering thoughtfully the welfare of the people bodily and morally3 but the distinctive personality of the architect slyly creeps in1 and on the rock of personal vanity they split into rival factions and a general quarrel ensues1 rending the best-laid schemes man ever devised for the emancipation of the human race4 ,and so the egg of social reform gets addled before it is hatched1 and alas6 the glittering city of ten thousand joys for mankind to dwell in recedes farther and farther into the sweet dreamland of the future4 ,one architect of ,utopia proposes to upbuild the city of ,human ,happiness by hand labour4 ,brick by brick it is to rise in colossal proportions and flowering beauty4 ,he starts with the individual as the foundation and finishes with the individual as top-stone4 ,he works by gradual and peaceful process to attain his splendid purpose4 ,his method of work is unpopular because it is slow4 ,another architect proposes to work by machinery1 and to force it to a hasty finish4 ,organization and legislation are the instruments of torture proposed for the rapid promotion of his purpose4 ,human society--social and industrial--is stricken with fell disease1 which can be cured promptly by ,acts of ,parliament and ,orders in ,council4 ,by this drastic method the organic welfare of society is to be builded while you wait4 ,the ,state is to be organized1 thought is to be organized1 the will is to be organized1 and happiness is to be organized1 and nothing of consequence is to be left unorganized2 while the mere individual is to be wiped from the map as an unnecessary dot of disfigurement upon it4 ,wealth is to be handled by a new and better process2 wealth is to be conscripted1 which means one man is to make it and another man is to take it4 ,labour is not to be dealt with as a marketable commodity4 ,it is an insult to the dignity of labour to measure a man's work and pay him exactly what his day's toil is worth in the market4 ,the working-man is a member of the universal brotherhood1 and needs elbow-room in the community to spread himself4 ,he must have the wages he hankers after1 and when too weary to work a pension granted from the ,state to make comfortable his latter end4 ,in fact in ,utopia every man1 woman1 and child claims sufficient income independent of work1 and the ,state must be ,paymaster-,general4 ,alas6 universal happiness on these idealistic lines of compulsion and greed is like an echo4 ,it answers your call but does not come4 ,socialism makes no progress in saving men2 it has eyes to see man's misery1 but no hands to lift him out of it4 ,the longer ,i live the more ,i am convinced that this great and vital problem of social regeneration is to be engineered only by slow gradations and with infinite patience and gentleness4 ,society is composed of dense masses and millions of frail1 erring human beings1 and to schedule a sudden inrush of perfect laws on the statute-book will not breed an improved strain of perfect citizens who can live up to the pose of perfection4 ,you cannot legislate selfishness and weakness and greediness and vice out of human nature quickly1 as you wring dirty water out of a wet sponge2 neither can you pump purity and patience and brotherly love into humanity by ,act of ,parliament1 and out of such shoddy material weave an ideal ,state in one round of the clock4 ,perfect laws are scarce as perfect men4 ,laws will grow better as we grow better--gradually4 ,laws and men act and react upon one another in mystic collusion4 ,the great incoming tide of righteousness which shall fill all things will fill them4 ,you cannot complete and furnish the top floor of the ,palace of ,humanity before you have laid the foundation solidly and deep on the rock of righteousness4 ,labour has not yet won its charter of rights because it has neglected to perform its role of duties4 ,labour has to look the social problem squarely in the face with both eyes open4 ,at present it only opens one eye--the eye which sees magnifically its rights4 ,the other eye is shut which should observe its duties4 ,the eye of ,labour that should see its duties is sealed in darkness4 ,the scales of ,justice must balance truly before mankind is happy ever more4 ,free labour is as necessary a commodity as free sunshine in a well-balanced ,state4 ,if a man does his work well and does not require so much beer and tobacco and time for football as another man1 he should be free to dispose of his labour as he chooses1 without being picketed or bludgeoned by lewd fellows of the baser sort4 ,until there prevail an all-round correct idea of work1 legislation will be a dead letter4 ,god has not made one sun to shine on wages and another on capital1 nor has ,he made two varieties of justice4 ,he is ,god over all of us1 and ,his law is impartial justice4 ,capital is not immaculate4 ,it sits the great god incarnate on its high gold throne1 ruling men with sovereign power and using men as a means to wealth4 ,its vestments are of purple and fine linen4 ,costly raiment to wear1 but unseemly smirched with the mud of gutter complots and stained red with blood sweated from the poor4 ,capital wants washing thoroughly from its iniquity and purging with hyssop before it is fragrant and can discourse virtue to the working classes4 ,capital and ,labour must forgive each the sins of the past1 and as ,brains and ,hands work together in mutual confidence and esteem4 ,brains and ,hands are not hard-set hereditary foes4 ,they are blood relatives1 members of the same body-politic1 and must hold together for their common good4 ,they are not even business opponents with clashing interests spoiling to cut each other's throat and smash the opposition concern with fiery glee of heart4 ,they are copartners in the same business concern1 and must combine1 each having their own department to superintend4 ,the interest of one is the interest of the other4 ,if one department breaks1 the other falls with it deep in disaster4 ,yet these two copartners of the same business firm are hating one another with a hot historical hatred that defies the flight of ages4 ,they are locked together struggling for mastery1 each hoping to throw the other and become top-dog and dictate new terms of partnership which never would be kept1 for the articles of treaty would soon become merely a scrap of paper4 ,it is not conquest3 it is co-operation that will bring peace and concord between ,capital and ,labour4 ,the world is ripe for a new social programme4 ,the war has altered the map of ,europe1 and it will alter the map of men's minds4 ,the war has swept away old crusted conventions which cobwebbed the mind1 and false foundations of social science upon which men laboured vainly to build ,utopia4 ,these things must be reassessed at new values4 ,the working-man wanted to get in the sun and own his patch as a free and independent citizen4 ,there is no such thing in the world as independence1 complete and arrogant3 either in art1 science1 revolting daughters or commerce4 ,independence is a fool's word or an anarchist's battle-cry4 ,the nearest approach to it in the realm of reality is interdependence4 ,substitute this word interdependence in the place of the other insolent and erroneous one and you have a working proposition1 for you establish a sense of justice between man and man1 and you have gathered together raw material out of which to build a new heaven and a new earth4 ,a pre-war panacea for curing the ills of unrighteousness which blight society was the amelioration of environment--a sonorous1 windy1 academic platitude having more sound in it than sense4 ,it was the pet scheme for manufacturing good citizens out of bad ones2 it began at the outward condition of mankind and worked inward4 ,it started with the barber1 the schoolmaster1 and the politician4 ,by pursuing this method they started with folly and ended with failure4 ,it is like telling a man to polish his boots when his heart wants cleaning4 ,the favourite speculation of theorists was that perfect circumstances create perfect character4 ,this is attractive reading in cheap handbooks of political economy for the working classes1 but in this wicked world it fails to pan out when put to a working test4 ,it is more important a man should start by mending himself1 and his circumstances will quickly mend themselves4 ,to expect by flattening down inequalities1 removing temptations1 and giving everybody a living wage of ,l#b per week1 ,england will flower into a ,garden of ,eden where people are all good and happy and pay no taxes1 and where angels will come and converse with us in the cool of the day1 is to expect the impossible4 ,to expect by adapting the lot to man instead of adapting man to his lot you will create an earthly paradise out of a world of wickedness is to expose your ignorance of human nature and to admit your incapacity for adjusting its wrongs4 ,they tell us that in the ,new ,democracy patriotism will be scrapped4 ,love of country is a parochial virtue2 it will be swamped in the greater love of humanity which will rise like a swelling flood and cover all4 ,in the new ,garden of ,eden we shall be a happy brotherhood1 for the dangerous serpent will be scotched4 ,this doctrine is maudlin sentimentalism with a tang of grotesque to flavour it4 ,humanity is an immense crowd to fall in love with en bloc2 each individual will receive a very thin slice of your affection if all the world is to share in it alike4 ,love will die of starvation fed on these lean rations4 ,as a padre fresh from the ,front persuasively raps out the truth1 the would-be cosmopolitan who will not narrow himself to love of country is rarely capable of any real self-devotion to the international ideal which he worships4 ,the lover of humanity is more often than not utterly miserable travelling in a third-class railway-carriage4 ,patriotism must survive as a national virtue1 however violently the universal brotherhood flourishes1 because the love of country is founded on the love of home and family1 and the love of home and family is founded on the love of a man and a woman4 ,you can never get over this nature-logic while men and women remain human beings with natural instincts which draw them to love one another and preserve the family feeling4 ,i would rather be the victim of every insular prejudice possible than have no ,british prejudices to stir my ,british blood4 ,another hope of the ages that has failed us in the hour of need is the ,church4 ,if all other saviours of society failed there remained the ,church as by law established to rely upon as the great regenerating power in the land4 ,alas6 the ,church in our midst cannot cast out evil spirits4 ,it has lost the gift of healing through respectability4 ,it worships an ancient creed instead of the living ,christ4 ,jesus of ,nazareth is the great ,international ,democrat of history4 ,he was a tradesman's son and a working carpenter ,himself4 ,this fact shocks respectability4 ,how many more people would be ,christians if ,christ had been born in a palace and not in a stable6 ,this is the unsavoury feature of religion1 and the exclusive dignitaries of the ,church hover round it dubiously4 ,they admit the historic fact with candour1 but slither away silently from its indelicate associations as far as decency permits4 ,we have been told that bishops in gaiters and aprons harmonize daintily with the quiet cathedral close1 shadowed by immemorial elms and the other minor glories of the ,establishment2 but bishops in gaiters do seem badly placed in a carpenter's shop1 where their ,lord and ,master served ,his 'prentice years4 ,the apron is an ancient figment of clothing bishops now wear in common with the working carpenter at his bench4 ,it is a kind of retaining badge1 signalling their humble origin and ancient descent4 ,bishops1 in general1 are cultured and amiable men1 more renowned for their learning than their piety4 ,they are appointed by the ,state1 and form the executive of the ecclesiastical machine to run the traditional piety of the land4 ,they sometimes quarrel amongst themselves as to who is orthodox and who is not on the episcopal bench--quarrelling amongst bishops is only a human diversion--but touching the righteousness which is in the law they are all blameless men4 ,there is something faulty in the religion they inculcate1 for it does not grip the people4 ,it is dreamy2 it is not real4 ,it is the vague pursuit of an unknown god ranging through a maze of decorative ritual and symbol1 and there remain great arid spaces in our nature which it never fills up4 ,it has been said that the visible ,church stands in the way of spiritual enlightenment of the people1 just as stone idols of the heathen stand in the way of apprehension of ,god4 ,what the eye sees before it the mind settles down upon1 and roams no farther searching for a fuller vision of spiritual truth4 ,the savage sees his stone idol1 and never thinks beyond it religiously4 ,it was his father's god1 and it is god enough for him4 ,the good ,churchman is equally content to know nothing beyond the religious ceremonials which the ,church ordains in the place of ,god1 the ,spiritual ,father of us all4 ,these ceremonials1 sanctified by long observance1 quenched the religious thirst of his forefathers1 and they quench his thirst and he is satisfied4 ,the ,church is tenacious of her hold on men1 not suffering the allegiance of the people to be shifted back to ,god the ,father4 ,the ,church is said to be the one and only sacred aqueduct through which ,divine grace can flow4 ,the curse of the community is the middleman4 ,he takes a heavy toll of profit in every business that feeds the people bodily or spiritually4 ,the ,new ,democracy must return to the teachings of ,jesus of ,nazareth to lay a solid foundation on which to build social righteousness and national greatness4 ,the secret elements of social rectitude slumber in the words of ,christ1 and the volcanic action of the war will blast them into life and power4 ,jesus ,christ was not a theologian or schoolman of the fossil type of ,gamaliel or ,calvin1 learned in booklore1 but ignorant of men4 ,he was not a stump orator inflaming the radical passions of the masses1 bating them into red fury by pictorially describing the wickedness of the classes4 ,he proposed no easy road to riches as a trap to catch the envious poor4 ,he did not sit in his study formulating a scientific creed to mystify people with a religion of words and phrases2 ,he lived in the open air a noble life that men could see and believe in4 ,it is the mind1 not the soul1 that asks a creed to help its faith2 the heart believes without the crutches of theological formula to support it4 ,he stood for goodness pure and simple1 for rich men and poor men alike4 ,his teaching is exemplified in ,his life1 and ,his life is a beautiful and faithful commentary on ,his teaching4 ,the careless world did not relish this straight talk on goodness--indoor and outdoor goodness4 ,it was too realistic1 too personal in its touch2 but men are growing sensible now as the world grows older1 and with reawakened conscience ask for the truth instead of its theological counterfeit1 which does not heal the wounded spot4 ,out of the teachings of ,jesus of ,nazareth grow eternal principles that build up the best governments and the wisest laws1 that train the finest citizens1 and regulate society on a basis of righteousness and mutual honour4 ,the seeds of all possible national prosperity and generous manhood lie embedded in these teachings4 ,nations may rise1 flourish1 and decay1 but the nation with the blood of ,christ in its veins is immortal and shall endure for ever4 ,may it be the ,british nation6 99,,xii99 99,,jesus ,,christ ,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,ages99 ,jesus ,christ is the lure of the ages4 ,he is the most interesting figure in history4 ,history says little about ,him1 yet that little means much to us4 ,it whets the appetite for more knowledge4 ,the little is distinctly fascinating2 what would be a full record of ,his sayings and doings1 suppose such a narrative displayed in faded manuscript were unearthed from the musty archives of an old ,eastern monastery and brought to daylight in the twentieth century8 ,the fragmentary record that we hold is sufficiently vital to have kept ,his memory green for nearly two thousand years4 ,what a glorious find a continuation of the wonderful story would be to those hungering for larger knowledge of their ,lord's earthly life6 ,jesus ,christ is the unplaced figure in history4 ,he occupies no niche in the secular temple of ,fame4 ,no historian of the country in which ,he lived paged ,his name amongst the worthies of the age or gave it mention in a footnote of history4 ,outside the covers of the ,sacred ,book ,jesus ,christ is an unknown quantity4 ,during ,his lifetime the insignificance of the movement ,he promoted in ,galilee was unworthy of serious attention from the authorities4 ,his disciples were men of obscure origin1 a mere handful of ignorant peasants and fishermen1 rated as misguided1 harmless fanatics following a crazy leader to oblivion1 the foreordained end of a madman's escapade4 ,others before ,him had started forth on the splendid expedition to set the world in order and were interrupted in the performance of their formidable task4 ,it was towering madness to suppose permanent results could follow a single-handed fight against the world2 to think that ,he could disturb the well-founded authority of ,king ,herod or challenge ,caesar seated in purple power on the seven hills of ,rome3 as likely ,he might uproot the seven hills themselves which cradle the imperial city on their nursing-lap4 ,yet to-day ,he ranks above all competing heroes and overlords earth and heaven in the compelling influence ,his solitary life imposes on the world's activities1 and that influence is only just beginning to be felt by us2 eventually it will succeed in refashioning the world after ,his own heart and conforming it to the likeness of ,his own image4 ,jesus ,christ is the lonely figure in history4 ,he launched ,his mission on the world without human patronage to give it a winning start4 ,illustrious men of the age did not do ,him reverence1 nor contribute their sympathy and support to stiffen ,his cause2 they were frankly hostile to ,him4 ,he had no family influence to help ,him in the great adventure2 ,his ancestry was illustrious1 but ,his relatives were poor and uninfluential folk2 ,his father was a village tradesman4 ,he was not a ,university man distinguished in letters to gain the ear of the cultured classes4 ,he had no well-to-do friends to back ,him either socially or financially4 ,no man ever stood more remote from the world's conventional smile than ,he did4 ,he was a rank outsider4 ,he battled onward through resisting foes1 upholding the shining truth as a sun-bright banner for brave men to rally round and fight for the kingdom of ,god and the empire of good souls on earth4 ,he dwelt in spiritual isolation1 for a mighty purpose cut ,him off from the current influences of ,his time4 ,the world's cold stare was the freezing recognition given ,him1 and it chilled the finer sensibilities of ,his loving nature4 ,there was nothing professional about ,jesus ,christ4 ,he was not a place-seeker4 ,he held no office in ,church or ,state4 ,he was a plain citizen1 plainly dressed4 ,his manner was simple and natural and without side4 ,his speech was of the people2 ,he was one of the crowd4 ,no glittering halo aureoled ,his brow1 promoting ,him beyond ,his brethren4 ,as a prophet1 appearances were dead against ,him4 ,why should ,he rise above his class-level and teach ,his betters and superiors high morality and spiritual truth8 ,he had no crumbs of learning ,himself--how could ,he feed others out of an empty basket8 ,he had never studied in the schools and won academic distinction6 ,surely ,he overstepped ,himself4 ,his neighbours resented ,his common everyday look1 easy manner1 and arrogant pretensions4 ,these things did not mix well together4 ,they denounced ,his new1 strange teachings as dangerous to the community2 ,he was an unchartered1 restless demagogue1 roaming the country1 disturbing the public weal4 ,they scoffed at this common villager and ,his idle dream of founding a kingdom of righteousness built on the dregs of humanity1 and derisively asked ,when shall this kingdom come8 ,now1 ,john the ,baptist1 hermit of the wilderness1 was a prophet after their own heart4 ,he played up to their ideal4 ,he quickened their hot imagination4 ,he was aglow with colour4 ,he was a human tornado4 ,his defiant attitude1 eccentric apparel1 and mystic fervour1 were vividly picturesque2 they caught the eye and compelled attention4 ,he was an untamed child of the desert2 he stood aloof from the common crowd4 ,even high-toned ,pharisees were glamoured by his romantic pose4 ,they listened raptly to his fiery message1 and were fascinated by his insolent tongue and audacious words shot bolt-straight at them4 ,his hearers staggered whilst he thundered burning condemnations on their smug sins and sordid lives2 they writhed in agony as he lifted them from their feet and suspended them over the bottomless pit1 choking in sulphurous fumes ascending from the fires of the damned below4 ,such ghastly presentment of the truth after the good old method of the prophets churned up the muddy depths of their polluted hearts4 ,it converted the masses quickly1 as a visitation of the plague could drop a panicky city to its knees1 and when the excitement slowed down be as quickly forgotten as a nine-days' wonder out of fashion4 ,the religious revival subsided like the froth blown off by the welcome wind of a new excitement4 ,the emotions of a day spent down on the banks of the ,jordan with ,john the ,baptist1 the idol of the people1 were exhilarating1 and something to be remembered for a lifetime by these hard-headed old ,jews1 and an interesting story to tell their children's children in years to come4 ,the ministry of ,jesus was not effervescent in character4 ,he could have stormed men's imaginations with flaming pomp and splendour2 ,he could have ridden a chariot of fire attended by thunder and lightning as running footmen to announce ,his presence1 but men's hearts would have been unmelted by such fierce demonstrations of power4 ,it might have awoke astonishment and intoxicated them into religious frenzy1 but afterward it would have left behind a nasty chill on the heart4 ,jesus ,christ had no official position in the ,church as a teacher4 ,he had no mandate from the powers that be to carry on4 ,he did not present ,himself as a high ,church dignitary1 high as an enthroned archbishop robed in scarlet and gold2 nor was ,he comfortably placed as a canon in a snug cathedral stall2 nor even a meek young curate casting longing eyes on ,church preferment4 ,the ,church of the day would have none of ,him4 ,they flung ,him from the synagogue4 ,his ideas were unproven and unpalatable to ,his countrymen2 ,he must build a new romantic world for ,himself and ,his followers to live in outside the orthodox world of ,his day1 if they wanted liberty to breathe1 and so ,he began at the bottom of society and quietly built upwards4 ,he was just a man walking amongst suffering humanity1 and was one of the sufferers ,himself4 ,he came like dew descending on mown grass1 noiseless1 fragrant1 healing2 silently ,he ministered amongst the people1 winning home to human hearts by sympathy and gentleness and love1 and gradually the new kingdom of righteousness grew up in the midst of the weary old world4 ,he gained dominion over men by their resistible beauty and power of ,divine truth which ,he expounded1 and made attractive by parable and picture and by ,his own blameless walk and conversation4 ,his teachings were exemplified in ,his life1 and ,his life shines in undimmed beauty the exemplification of ,his teaching4 ,he became a living gospel to them which all men could read1 and ,his ,divine personality was a centre of healing power which cured men's infirmities of body and mind4 ,he had no money to pay for services rendered to ,him1 and ,he gave no hopes of worldly honour or possessions to ,his followers4 ,he was homeless and at the mercy of friends for the shelter of a roof and the hospitality of ,his daily meals4 ,he had intense sympathy with men1 but ,he was no deluded optimist4 ,he placed measured value on every man's pledge of fidelity to ,his cause1 for ,he knew what was in man2 with clear insight ,he saw into their dishonesty1 selfishness1 misery1 but ,he knew they never had had a chance to do better1 and ,he meant to give them a good chance all round4 ,he frankly told people their sins1 yet with all ,his straight speaking ,he won men and women to ,himself4 ,his manner was gracious1 and ,he was indulgent to the frailties of our human nature with a sympathy that pardons all4 ,the deep longings of ,his heart were for their happiness and uplifting1 and the difficulty ,he encountered in leading them to follow the things that made for their peace was heartbreaking to ,his sensitive nature4 ,he had but few friends1 and of the inner circle ,he gathered round ,him all were not loyal2 for ,he was betrayed into the hands of ,his enemies by one of the intimates of the band1 and was forsaken by all in the hour of ,his supreme trial4 ,he returned good for evil1 blessing for cursing1 and died in the act of praying for ,his enemies4 ,no one could bring any serious accusation against ,him1 and he was declared innocent by the judge who condemned ,him to death4 ,yet ,he was sacrificed as one whose life did not count2 ,he was thrown as a sop to slake the blood-thirst of a howling ,jewish mob4 ,in the annals of the law-court ,his name is not mentioned1 and there is no record of ,his trial and crucifixion to be found in history4 ,looked at from the standpoint of men of ,his time1 ,his life was a failure1 and the delectable vision of a kingdom of righteousness on earth1 the coming of which ,he pictured in glowing1 fluent colours1 reads like a dainty fairy-tale spun for children's amusement4 ,yet ,he himself saw through the darkness into the white light of the future1 and beheld the crowning success of ,his mission4 ,he saw the coming triumph of the ,conquering ,cross1 which should subdue all things unto itself1 and in place of the finest legend ever planted on human credulity by an artist in words ,he saw outlined through the dissolving mists of time1 solid and well founded1 the ,city ,beautiful1 with its shining streets1 its many mansions and translucent atmosphere1 peopled with white-robed citizens redeemed and ever blest2 and the verdict of to-day is that the ministry of ,jesus ,christ on earth was the turning point in the world's destiny4 ,no other personality has exerted such profound influence on the lives of men as ,jesus of ,nazareth1 the despised and rejected of ,his day4 ,the ministry of ,christ on earth lasted about three years in all4 ,until ,he was thirty years of age ,he was content to rest in deep obscurity4 ,nazareth1 with its quiet remote valley1 was world enough for ,him to move in1 and when ,his hour was come ,he found ,himself4 ,he opened ,his mouth and taught the people4 ,he passed from village to village1 a travelling storm-centre1 exposing respectable old sins1 ripping up time-honoured religious hypocrisies1 vexing the ,pharisees1 and confounding the vain traditions of the elders4 ,he laid down new laws of life and conduct for men's observance1 and unfolded the love of ,god to man in its plenitude of tenderness and pity2 even to waifs and strays and outcasts of city slums who had never received a kind1 hopeful word from the lips of their own religious teachers4 ,in fact1 it was ,god breaking in upon history1 opening a new permanent way into heaven for lost men to return home by1 and to cull the wayside flowers of joy and happiness whilst homeward bound4 ,thus ,jesus in three short years fearlessly and swiftly accomplished ,his world-wide mission1 and died triumphantly in full achievement of ,his benign purpose4 ,not half the story of those few full1 crowded hours of ,his glorious life has been collected and cast into history4 ,it is a brief narrative of a brief career2 so little of ,his life comes in view4 ,just a few detached incidents and a few disjointed conversations jotted down from the mellowed memory of three or four old men years after the events occurred furnish us an incomplete memoir of ,his earthly ministry--that is all we have4 ,there was no adoring pen of a ready writer like ,boswell to fix on the spot ,his sayings and doings4 ,we possess only stray fragments of the life-story gathered up from memory and hearsay1 and on these gathered fragments we found all our spiritual faith and base our eternal hope of blessedness4 ,the structure seems to have been casually and hastily put together1 but its design is the work of the ,supreme ,architect1 and the house was well built and the foundation securely placed1 for it has sheltered many millions of people through many generations of time4 ,the roof is still rainproof1 and the walls stand firm in their pillared strength4 ,it is the living words of ,christ that form the stronghold of the ages4 ,his words are seed-thoughts dropped into the hearts of men which bring forth fruit manifold4 ,again they drop into other hearts1 and springing up yield fruit abundantly unto life everlasting2 and so generation after generation men fall under ,his gracious spell1 and turn to ,his words for guidance1 for inspiration1 for joy4 ,you never reach the end of ,christ's words4 ,they are growing words4 ,there is always something new springing out of them unexpectedly3 new thoughts1 new laws1 new problems1 new solutions1 new enemies1 new friends1 new hopes1 new consolations4 ,the words of ,christ are spending and being spent1 but they are never exhausted4 ,they pass into new meanings1 into new currency1 but they never pass away4 ,they are the hope of all the ages4 ,the early ,christians lived in a state of spiritual elation2 they daily1 hourly1 expected the ,second ,coming of ,christ4 ,it was the one article of their religious creed4 ,the end of the world was to be the next important festival in the ,church calendar1 so they held in full near view their heavenly home1 which was already feathered for their reception4 ,at the sound of the ,archangel's trumpet the heavens would open1 the dead rise from their graves1 and they would be caught up in the air to meet the ,lord1 and float off triumphantly into mansions of eternal rest furnished for their home coming4 ,they saw it all vividly as a drama soon to be enacted1 in which they each would play their ordered parts4 ,the present was a dream-life to them1 a mirage quickly to melt away4 ,this hope of immortality was the first bright ray of light the gospel of ,jesus ,christ shed upon mankind4 ,having minds heavily charged with celestial visions1 the common round of daily duties became unreal to them4 ,they had a short creed and no theology4 ,they sat on the brink of eternity1 and the radiance streaming from its shining heights bedazzled their minds with bewildering raptures4 ,after long and patient waiting the heavens did not open1 no clarion voice trumpeted the dead from their graves or welcomed saints into paradise2 the sordid1 sin-stained earth remained their polluted dwelling-place4 ,the illusion of the millennium faded away and disappointment frosted their early hopes1 yet bravely they held on and died in the faith4 ,the ,saviour's promise did not fulfil on the comfortable lines they planned1 but it would make good another way equally great4 ,the ,church learnt to take long views of the promises1 and turned its thoughts to things terrestrial4 ,the affairs of the present grew interesting to them2 they commenced setting their earthly house in order1 and when the ,church settled down into the slow1 steady stride characteristic of every long march it became clear that she was destined to rank amongst the permanent institutions of the world4 ,she formed new rules of life for her children's guidance1 and thus faith in ,christ gradually lost the fragrant aroma of otherworldliness which first perfumed it1 and in lapse of time the plan of salvation became more thought of than salvation itself4 ,a vast ecclesiastical system was organized1 having endless intricate ramifications1 and ,god was appointed head of one department of it2 and to-day heavy accretions of theology accumulate and fasten deadly tight on the old ,church like barnacles crusting the bottom of a long floated ship1 hindering its speed to port4 ,verily the time has now come that the good ship of the ,church be careened1 and the foul accretions of mediaeval theology stripped off and the solid copper bottom of truth flash clean and bright in the sunlight1 and the truth as it is in ,jesus recover its splendour and power as in days of the early ,church4 ,his teachings shall yet win men to righteousness1 and the fruits of ,his lips bring peace and joy to those who believe on ,his name4 ,the words of ,christ have a future before them in moulding the growing goodness of the world and in solving the hard problems of social reform which vex humanity4 ,he is the wise ,reconciliator who can adjust society and bring into harmony the classes of men now gnashing their teeth at one another on opposing fronts4 ,jesus ,christ is the true ,political ,economist1 but ,he taught far in advance of ,his times--truth always marches a bit ahead of us4 ,at present in social science we are only just touching the hem of ,his garment1 and healing virtue flows from it2 presently we shall approach nearer to ,him1 and1 feeling the full throb of ,his loving heart1 we shall understand ,him better1 and ,his life-blood will pour into our veins and complete the healing of the nations4 99,,xiii99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,living ,,word99 ,the ,english ,state ,church suffers from excess of theology and paucity of gospel4 ,our narrow ,church creeds1 in which the gospel of ,jesus ,christ is kept under cork by ecclesiastical cellar-men1 must be broken that the good wine of the kingdom may flow freely4 ,the gospel of ,jesus ,christ in the unwholesome captivity of rigid creeds is a feeble1 mean1 contemptible gospel1 quite unable to save mankind1 which business it undertook to achieve when coming into the world4 ,if the teaching of ,jesus ,christ is no larger or kindlier than these old crumbling creeds show1 it deserves to be scrapped1 for there is no room in them for ,christ to have fair play4 ,christianity is not a formula1 it is a passion2 it is not theology1 it is truth4 ,these dismal dogmas have not enough spiritual nourishment in them to keep men's souls alive2 men starve on such unleavened food4 ,what are these antiquated creeds of the ,church which strangle religion8 ,they are ancient dismantled strongholds where the fighting forefathers of the faith housed themselves tightly and fought their foes tenaciously4 ,the modern fathers of the ,church still inhabit these tottering towers of refuge1 although their day of usefulness is spent4 ,loyal ,churchmen still breathe lovingly the chilly1 stifling atmosphere of these spiritual dungeons of traditional ,christianity4 ,we are living in a new age since ,august1 #aiad1 and a new spirit possesses the people4 ,with this terrific war raging new standards of values in religion1 as in politics1 have come into operation1 shattering old ideals evermore4 ,to encourage and strengthen them in this era of strain and conflict men need the larger1 cleaner1 diviner truth which fell from the lips of the living ,christ4 ,we want these truths to win through--the spoken words of ,christ1 with the free airs of heaven blowing across them1 bringing healthiness of life1 sanity of faith1 and manifold charities1 to all men who dwell on earth4 ,the lure of the ,living ,word alone can hold men firm in this age of upheaval1 when the old world has caved in and the plans of the new world are not yet manifest4 ,there is finer1 simpler1 fuller spiritual teaching in the four gospels of ,matthew1 ,mark1 ,luke1 and ,john1 touching our present need than in all books of theology ever written and all ,sunday sermons weekly preached4 ,it is these half-forgotten things that matter on which new emphasis must be thrown4 ,theology is the great imposture planted on mankind as a substitute for the teachings of ,jesus ,christ4 ,when one leaves the words of ,christ and strays amongst the words of men1 it is like a traveller switching off the main line whereon his destination lies and losing himself on a side-track4 ,it is disaster to side-track on the journey of life4 ,keep to the words of ,christ and you keep on the main line4 ,the gospel as revealed in the teachings of ,jesus is entirely free from the sacerdotal imperative which nowadays imposes priest and ritual in the path of spiritual worship and blocks the fair-way to ,god4 ,priests and rituals and creeds are non-essentials2 they are only wrappings3 they are not religion1 nor the best part of it4 ,we must distinguish between living1 breathing ,christianity and the man-made ecclesiastical garments which clothe it fashionably1 because the difference between them is vital and far-reaching4 ,true religion1 however1 is seldom found stripped of all temporary wrappings1 but its spiritual vigour survives in spite of ,church-made millinery which encumbers it and impedes its healthy growth4 ,strip the religion of ,jesus ,christ of its grave-clothes and put the pure gospel in her mouth1 and never tidings could be told to weary1 heavy-laden men to-day which would be hailed as half so welcome4 ,the one thing needful to make this world an earthly paradise1 delightful to dwell in1 is for men to live face to face with ,god1 without a screen of ritual or image or priestcraft obstructing the view of our ,heavenly ,father2 it is the light of ,god's countenance that cheers the heart of man1 and strengthens him to live a good life in all sincerity of purpose4 ,ecclesiastics have built up the ,church into a colossal business trust which corners the ,bread of ,life and doles it to hungry mortals on terms of its own making4 ,the ,church is a wealthy corporation with immense property and privilege to safeguard and hold against all comers1 and these temporal possessions engage its keenest thought and ceaseless activity4 ,so it has important work to do other than saving the souls of men4 ,to maintain its temporal authority in the world it has tampered with the teaching of ,jesus ,christ2 by cunning craftiness of man the gospel has been twisted into theology1 and the way of salvation shrouded behind a dense veil of ceremonial observances which the ,church imposes on people and declares necessary to the saving of their souls4 ,much conflicting religious literature is issued annually by free-lances of the ,press to explain the downright simplicity of the truth as it is in ,jesus2 and these conflicting opinions add other stumbling-blocks in the way1 for they baffle the brains of the gentle reader1 beating up a thick dust of doubt around him that his faith is smothered in a cloud of perplexity which darkens the daylight of truth4 ,the words of ,jesus1 when read and pondered over1 prove religion to be a very simple matter4 ,yet this simplicity is its standing peril4 ,so little human wisdom is needed to understand the words of ,christ that we are apt to fear they do not mean what they say in plainest language--the language runs too easy for the majesty and importance and solemnity of the theme4 ,we think there is an occult mystery lurking behind the honest homely phrases4 ,language so often bewilders simple-minded people that we are hard of belief when told we can find the way to heaven ourselves without the aid of a bishop's pastoral staff to point it out4 ,the difficulty is to convince the plain man that he understands the words of ,jesus when he reads them1 and that he feels his spirit touch the ,spirit of the ,saviour of his soul without a priest between to make the contact4 ,the ,church as a commercial organization would fall quickly into bankruptcy if the gospel in its naked plainness was believed in whole-heartedly4 ,very superior people tell us that the teachings of ,jesus are only the beginning of ,god's revelation to man2 they tell us that new revelations are constantly flowing in upon us through the sacred channel of the ,church1 and that the ,church alone holds the key which deciphers these confidential messages despatched from mysterious sources for our edification4 ,this is ecclesiastical bluff4 ,the teachings of ,jesus in the gospels suffice the spiritual needs of men through all time--time past1 time present1 and time to come4 ,when ,god legislates once ,he legislates for aye1 for truth is unchanging and cannot be improved on as the world grows older4 ,no ,divine after-thoughts will be added to the written word nor supplementary revelation supplied to guide men through the tangling maze of life4 ,the ,spirit of ,god is equal to all emergencies arising between now and the sundown of time4 ,new-fallen light may illumine the written word in the forward quest of faith1 for every age makes its own theology and coins new language to express old truths4 ,the words of ,christ are inexhaustible treasure locked in a deep mine1 and in that mine lies many a lode of truth untapped by the diggers4 ,the old gospel mine yields more and more treasure as the searchers strike deeper and deeper into its secret heart4 ,the last nugget of truth has not yet been lifted from the treasure-house of ,god's ,word4 ,back to the words of ,christ3 this is the one hope of a truly good life--national or individual4 ,if we forsake ,christ and turn to the teachings of the ,church for our spiritual well-being1 we suffer for our folly in so doing4 ,the real meaning of anything is to be found at its beginning not in its latest developments4 ,as religious systems develop and grow old they grow corrupt1 and on the earthly journey pick up error with truth1 and the two mixed together look equally sacrosanct to the uninitiated1 simple soul1 and even the very elect are ofttimes deceived4 ,water is purest at the spring-head2 the farther it flows from the fountain1 the more contaminated it becomes4 ,back to ,jesus ,christ and ,his teachings in the gospels4 ,his words are the very life and light of men4 ,men often mistake the nature of religion through wrong teaching received in early years or no teaching received at all1 thus giving the well-rooted weeds of error a long start to grow rampant in the human soil4 ,some people think religion is an isolated activity1 like collecting old china1 a hobby you can pursue1 drop1 and pick up again at leisure4 ,other people imagine it is the conventional badge of good society1 giving tone to a life of fashionable respectability1 like a carnation slipped into your buttonhole which adds a finishing touch to your evening dress4 ,but they are not over careful1 these conventional people1 to apply its tenets in the privacy of their homes2 religion is never enthroned as a domestic virtue4 ,lord ,melbourne1 the early ,victorian ,prime ,minister1 was one day coming from church in the country in a mighty fume4 ,finding a friend on the road1 he unloaded3 ,it's too bad4 ,i have always been a supporter of the ,church1 and ,i have always upheld the clergy4 ,but it is really too bad to have to listen to a sermon like that we had this morning4 ,why1 the preacher actually insisted upon applying religion to a man's private life6 ,their interior life is neither better nor worse for hitching on religion as a supplementary virtue4 ,such good people would never miss an opportunity of attending a missionary meeting at ,caxton ,hall or neglect an early morning service at the parish church1 but the maid-of-all-work in the kitchen is not benefited by the religious fervour which perfumes her ladyship with the odour of sanctity4 ,religion is a state of mind giving purpose and direction to the whole round of a man's activities4 ,religion is not like a red holly-berry in a tumbler of clear water1 a hard1 insoluble object1 pretty enough seen through the crystal medium1 but working no change in the water4 ,religion resembles a drop of cochineal falling into the water2 it colours with rose hue the full contents of the tumbler2 it tinges the whole character and conduct of a man2 it permeates his thoughts and feelings and actions1 changing the colour of his life for good and for ever4 ,religion works a change--a radical change--that is the point4 ,it is not a question of drapery2 it does not merely hang up a decoration here and there to improve appearances1 leaving the secret chambers of the heart unclean4 ,it makes a new man in ,christ ,jesus even out of the coarsest raw material to be found on the human market4 ,the ,church as established in our midst to-day cannot work a social regeneration in the land1 for it gives forth so little of the teaching of ,christ to the people4 ,the gold of truth it circulates is mixed with the dross of error of its own minting4 ,it may bear the image and superscription of ,christ on it and pass the world's counter as genuine metal1 but it is counterfeit coin of the kingdom4 ,the ,church does not grip the people4 ,it is a fashionable institution of conventional high-grade orthodoxy1 but it is a thing apart from the people4 ,its clergy socially are a multitude of pleasant1 amiable1 guileless folk spread over the tennis-lawns and garden-parties of ,england on a summer's afternoon1 mingling good-humouredly with their neighbours1 but ecclesiastically they belt themselves in a compact phalanx of self-centred1 intolerant men with a purpose in life1 or by preference they are self-constituted priests4 ,they hold the ,church as a close borough1 consume its revenues1 swear by its creed1 and maintain its privileges4 ,they are strong partisans2 the same interest guides them which governs the business man in upholding his trade interests--the sacred rights of property4 ,to defend their inherited rights they will fight doggedly1 and surrender only in the last trench4 ,outside the charmed enclosure of the ,church the clergy esteem their ,christian neighbours ecclesiastical inferiors1 not to be consorted with on equal footing1 and they leave the ,almighty to take charge of outsiders here and hereafter4 ,as a class long years of clerical assumption has sapped the humanness out of their nature1 and only a priest is left in their skin4 ,there are honourable exceptions to this general rule4 ,many individual clergymen are thoroughly alive with the spirit of ,christ4 ,they are men of broad sympathies and of intense devotion to their work1 but it is surprising how tightly the ,church as an institution grips those who minister at her altars2 the ,church is the idol of their hearts1 the centre of their adoration4 ,if the centre of their adoration could be transferred to ,christ2 if they could love ,christ as devotedly as they love the ,church of ,england1 the result of their ministrations amongst the people would be gloriously successful2 if instead of coddling the one respectable sheep that never strayed away they rounded up the ninety-and-nine lost ones and settled them in the home pastures the work would make their hearts ring with joy4 ,i have heard sermons by clergymen in which the ,church and the ,prayer ,book were exalted as the chief ,divine oracles before which we all must bow in blind submission as though ,christ and the ,bible existed not in any corner of the preacher's mind2 and the result of such degenerate doctrine is that preachers add good ,churchmen to their flock1 but not good ,christians to the fold of ,christ4 ,a good ,churchman thus becomes a superior being to a common ,christian1 as though it were more important to be a ,churchman than a ,christian4 ,churchman really is only the trade name for a man who believes in the ,state ,church4 ,to be a ,churchman is good enough for some people4 ,compare the spirit of ,jesus of ,nazareth with the harsh1 unsympathetic system represented by the ,anglican creed which caricatures the ,saviour in our midst4 ,the cruel system which refuses to bury an unbaptized baby with its dead mother1 or would refuse to allow a man or a woman to have a chance of happiness in marriage because1 through no fault of their own1 they have already suffered great unhappiness2 that would refuse relatives permission to carve the word ,reverend on the tombstone of a ,wesleyan minister buried in a village churchyard because the dead man was not of the ,church of ,england4 ,the ,kikuyu ,conference is typical of our bishops' lack of ,christ-like charity and shortage of that kindly touch of nature that makes the whole world kin4 ,the question lying before the bishops in conference was the promotion of a brotherly spirit and the adoption of practical steps toward unity in the mission-field2 or1 should the ,church of ,england retain its old crusted conventions as an exclusive institution and cold shoulder all outsiders4 ,the bishops consulted in ,lambeth ,palace over this aggravating question1 and finally decided that their first duty was to protect the ,church of ,england in all its ancient sanctities1 to retain the proud boundary-walls isolating those within in strict spiritual seclusion1 and to warn trespassers off their private ecclesiastical preserves4 ,their duty to the ,state ,church was clear-cut and formulated--viz41 to maintain its high-cast principles and to avoid the contagion of the sects4 ,none of the beautiful roses of charity growing in their garden-close must run over the wall for the wayfarer to pluck4 ,their fraternal duty to native ,christians won to ,christ by missionary zeal remains obscure4 ,however1 no loose form of brotherly love or ,christian fellowship can be permitted in the mission-field or elsewhere4 ,state ,church principles must be upheld4 ,as a sweetmeat and as a goody-goody sample of what ,jesus ,christ meant by brotherly love1 an occasional hospitality to other ,christian communities may be practised without prejudice to ,church principles2 you may come and partake of ,holy ,communion with us in our ,church1 but we cannot partake of ,holy ,communion with you in yours4 ,for you to come to us is a privilege1 for us to go to you would be infra dig4 ,on these liberal lines the bishops expound the teachings of ,jesus ,christ and uphold ,church principles1 and if ,christ's principles clash with ,church principles1 so much the worse for the principles of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the ,church is the orthodox institution1 and must hold itself inviolate even against the heterodoxy of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the ,kikuyu ,conference and its deliberations may be summed up briefly as a study in ,church principles and how to maintain them4 ,such harsh decisions bring contempt upon the ,church1 and widen the gulf which divides the rubric from the gospels and the clergyman from ,christ4 ,jesus of ,nazareth differs essentially from the ,church on earth which to-day flies ,his banner and breaks ,his commandments4 ,christ declared for character and conduct as essentials in life2 the ,church favours creed and ceremony4 ,christ worked undogmatically1 and the ,church1 overweighted with dogma1 fails hopelessly in its ,christly work4 ,observe the generous1 liberal1 broad-minded traits which even in the scanty records of the gospels mark ,jesus ,christ as the kindliest and most humane of men4 ,where there was a choice1 ,he stood on the side of charity and common sense4 ,he was no misanthrope2 ,he was of social temperament4 ,he knew well the joy of life1 and ,he did not hesitate to participate in it4 ,he drank wine ,himself1 and exerted miraculous power that others might drink it4 ,in argument upon ,sabbatarianism ,he took the more liberal view4 ,he instantly and frankly forgave the woman taken in adultery4 ,his heart went out in gentleness to children1 to the poor1 and to everybody who needed support and comfort4 ,it is that golden thread of kindliness running like flashes of sunlight through ,his ministry which wins the love and adherence of disciples to ,his name4 ,a few years ago an ,english ship foundered on the coast of ,ushant4 ,many of the crew were drowned and the bodies washed ashore4 ,the villagers of ,ushant showed no little kindness to the shipwrecked strangers4 ,the interment of the drowned sailors was a memorable scene4 ,the deceased were all ,protestants1 the villagers were all ,roman ,catholics1 yet the villagers performed the ceremony with all the ritual shown to those of their own faith4 ,the cure officiating had qualms of conscience in admitting the bodies to the church and reading the ,catholic service over them4 ,an ,englishman standing by remarked1 ,god has no creed4 ,the cure waved his hand as if to dismiss the objections which perturbed his mind1 and the service proceeded4 ,this is a refreshing lesson in humanity furnished by the simple-minded1 good-natured fishermen of ,ushant4 ,the spirit of ,jesus breathes in it victoriously over the narrowness of creed and the hardness of heart which separate men in much party bitterness4 99,,xiv99 99,,the ,,lure ,,of ,,the ,,eucharist99 ,a beautiful spectacular ceremonial the ,church has wrapped around the ,sacrament of the ,lord's ,supper1 smothering it under the pomp of a religious service1 which works upon the nerves like a subtle1 mastering spell4 ,the senses of the worshipper become drugged with incense1 dazed by the glitter of broidered vestments1 charmed with the strains of alluring music1 spellbound with the deep droning voice intoning at the altar1 and all the splendid equipments and sacred associations of the sanctuary1 which tighten you up until a wrapt ecstasy of feeling intoxicates you in the midst of it all1 and you are drenched in the luxury of strong1 dreamy religious emotion4 ,for nineteen centuries the spectacle has been growing in significance1 and it is not finished growing yet4 ,every age adds a decorative touch to embellish its colossal splendours4 ,finality in ecclesiastical evolution lies a long way off in the distance4 ,if one of the twelve disciples who supped with our ,blessed ,lord on that historic night could slip out of paradise and for a few minutes witness a modern high celebration of the ,holy ,eucharist1 he would marvel much at the imposing function1 and marvel more at men's credulity in mistaking an ecclesiastical pageant for a simple act of devout obedience to ,jesus ,christ4 ,the plain and homely meal which our ,lord instituted to be a remembrance of ,himself and ,his death on the ,cross has flowered into an ornate and flamboyant religious function striking wonderment and awe in the hearts of mankind by the glitter of its barbaric and imposing splendours4 ,the ,church has worked up the ,lord's ,supper into a supernatural mystic rite run on old pagan lines2 in fact1 it amalgamates ,christianity with ancient magic1 and so the spirit of ,christ escapes from the service1 and only ,his traditional dead body reposes on the altar like the cold ashes of an extinct fire4 ,recall the simple and unpretentious meal of which our ,blessed ,lord partook with ,his disciples on the eve of ,his betrayal and death4 ,there in an upper room in the city of ,jerusalem is the small assembly1 consisting of the ,master and ,his twelve disciples1 and during the meal ,jesus took a piece of bread1 and when ,he had given thanks1 ,he brake it and said3 ',take1 eat3 this is ,my body1 which is broken for you2 this do in remembrance of ,me4' ,after the same manner also ,he took the cup1 when ,he had supped1 saying3 ',this cup is the ,new ,testament in ,my blood2 this do ye as often as ye drink in remembrance of ,me2 for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup1 ye do show the ,lord's death till ,he come4'99 99 #a ,cor4 xi4 #bd-bf4 ,on this plain foundation the amazing and pernicious rite of ,transubstantiation has been reared--a veritable temple of divination1 and cloistered within its shadowed recesses the priest casts his spell1 dispensing religious consolations to credulous and confiding mortals tangled in the coils of the seductive creed4 ,transubstantiation is a pagan heresy grafted on to ,christian stock4 ,in ancient times1 when the pagan priest muttered an incantation over the idol of his god1 the spirit of the god was supposed to enter the idol1 and so when the ,christian priest now utters a prayer over the bread and wine it is affirmed they become the real flesh and the real blood of ,christ4 ,a brief glance back on the early history of the ,church shows us the door through which this sacerdotal error slipped into the sacramental service1 and how the ,church drifted from the words of ,jesus ,christ and sought other and strange gods for counsel4 ,for three centuries after the ,crucifixion the disciples held closely together in little groups or churches in the towns where they abode4 ,many of them dwelt in ,rome1 down in the dark subterranean city of the catacombs1 with its maze of narrow lanes1 blind alleys1 and cryptic sanctuaries1 hidden under the gay1 cruel city of sunlit streets and open air4 ,here they lived1 striving faithfully and patiently to attain pure1 blameless1 holy lives before ,god in a pagan world1 whose sins they renounced and whose hatred they courted by thrusting the new and unwelcome society of ,christ into their hostile midst4 ,christians were mistaken for criminals--but there1 ,christ was crucified as one4 ,through all persecutions they held fast to the teachings of ,jesus of ,nazareth4 ,nothing daunted them1 nothing disheartened them4 ,the words of ,christ refreshed them in all the weariness of spirit4 ,in teeth of deadly opposition they grew in number until a questionable honour was conferred upon the ,church which changed its fortunes and marred its simplicity4 ,the ,roman ,emperor ,constantine became a convert to the new religion1 and now and henceforth the religion of ,jesus ,christ is honourable in the sight of all men4 ,it is the fashionable craze of ,rome4 ,the ,emperor's ,court followed the ,emperor's example and joined up4 ,the ,roman world followed the royal lead and professed conversion4 ,this is the flowering-time of ,christianity4 ,the ,christian sect1 yesterday the outcasts and scum of the earth1 are now received into polite society1 dine in the best houses1 and are welcomed everywhere4 ,the bishops of the ,church are dug out of their deep burrows in the stuffy underground where they practised the simple life2 they put off their poverty of pocket and meekness of spirit1 and are robed in gorgeous raiment and rank amongst the rulers of the earth4 ,they are transfigured men in mind and in manners4 ,the ,bishop of ,rome leaps into fame1 wins for himself a palace and a throne in the city of the ,caesars1 and a court of red-robed cardinals surge round him with royal observances and diplomatic intrigue4 ,our bishops in ,england become princes of the ,church1 have princely palaces1 and princely revenues to maintain the dignity of their princely estate4 ,these gilded grandees of the ,church are considered to be spiritually the lineal descendants of the ,peasant of ,galilee who at nightfall had not where to lay ,his head4 ,flattery worked the ,church's undoing1 for in the hour of her worldly triumph she gave away all that the early ,christian martyrs had died to win4 ,the mass of people who obsequiously played up to ,constantine and joined the ,church were not converted to the ,christian faith2 they did not believe in ,christ with all their heart4 ,to many of them ,christ was only a new ,deity added to the many gods they already worshipped4 ,in heart they remained pagan1 but behaved prudently and changed their coat at the ,emperor's bidding4 ,they did not forsake their old religion when they accepted the new creed2 they amalgamated the two4 ,they carried their pagan superstitions with them into the ,christian ,church1 and1 planted in new soil1 there they took root and flourished vigorously in the garden of the ,lord4 ,the old gods became saints2 the pagan shrines and images and festivals were whitewashed and christianized and given a place in the ,church calendar2 the magic by which their pagan priests trained the spirit of the gods to enter the idol at call1 the same priestly magic transferred to the new religion brought the body of the ,lord into the bread and the wine at the service of the ,lord's ,supper4 ,such galloping progress did the heresy make amongst the mixed multitudes who mingled their devotions with the elect in the ,church that before long the bread and wine were given to the dead4 ,the ,sacrament1 it is supposed1 was placed on the breast of dead persons1 as a charm against evil spirits4 ,this superstitious custom was rooted deeply in the religion of the day1 for the ,church was compelled to legislate on the subject4 ,the custom was forbidden in ,africa by the ,council of ,hippo1 ,a4,d4 #cic2 the ,council of ,carthage1 ,a4,d4 #cig2 and in ,gaul at the ,council of ,auxerre1 ,a4,d4 #egh2 yet it lingered tenaciously in the hearts of the people as a sacred custom to be observed regardless of hostility to it in high places4 ,again at the ,council in ,trullo1 ,a4,d4 #fia1 it was forbidden4 ,an incident in the life of ,st4 ,benedict1 who died about the year #edj1 discloses much to us4 ,a boy who had been disobedient died suddenly1 and his corpse could not rest1 in the grave1 so ,st4 ,benedict ordered the body of the ,lord 7the ,sacrament7 to be placed on the breast of the boy1 and the corpse rested immediately1 and remained quietly buried4 ,the miraculous legend of the ,lord's ,supper obtains in the ,church to-day with perfumed pomp and splendour of worship4 ,the magic of the ,real ,presence bites deep into the core of the ,church's creed4 ,as the ages roll the legend develops new forms of expression4 ,its inferences are not always expressed1 nor is its significance posted on the surface1 but it is the deeply sunk tap-root of the green bay-tree of sacerdotalism which flourishes in the ,church of ,christ and binds the people round and round with disciplinary fetters of steel1 captives to priestly power4 ,the consecrated bread and wine still are worshipped as being the body of the ,lord4 ,when the priest consecrates the bread and wine on the altar for the ,communion ,service1 sometimes a part of it is reverently kept back and is called the reserved sacrament2 this reserved sacrament is conjured with4 ,it is placed in a small box of ornate workmanship called a shrine or tabernacle1 and is deposited on an altar in the church1 which is called ,god's resting-place1 and is worshipped as the body of our ,lord4 ,in preference1 a secluded and quiet place in the church is chosen for the altar of the reserved sacrament4 ,admirable arrangements have been made in some ,english churches4 ,in one church there is a side-chapel somewhat out of sight from the main entrance of the church4 ,in another there is a crypt chapel4444 ,in another there is a chapel reached by steps ascending from the church4 ,by such arrangements1 when the door of the chapel is kept unlocked and the fact of reservation is known1 there is at once protection to the sacred presence of our ,lord1 and accessibility to those who will use it well4 ,to these lonely side-altars in shadowy places of the sanctuary at any hour during the day stray worshippers come and kneel before the tabernacle and worship the body of ,christ enclosed therein4 ,all that ,christ can claim of human love and adoration is due to ,him in ,his sacramental presence1 says an ,oxford advocate of the intruding heresy2 the worship which the ,christian soul pays to ,him when the sacrament is consecrated is paid also as it is reserved4 ,it includes the utmost response of which the soul is capable4 ,in past times plain-speaking people called these worshippers of the sacrament idolaters4 ,that word may reveal the thoughts of many hearts to-day4 ,dr4 ,darwell ,stone1 in his book ,the ,reserved ,sacrament1 advocates an ample toleration widely extended in the ,church of ,england on behalf of these idolaters4 ,facing the accusation of idolatry cast by his opponents1 he throws out a challenge4 ,speaking of those who make the charge of idolatry1 from their own point of view1 he states1 they are perfectly right4 ,if the consecrated elements are only bread and wine after consecration as before1 whatever gifts or virtues may be attached to the profitable reception of them1 those who imagine that they are worshipping our ,lord are wholly wrong in seeking the object of their adoration in ,his presence in the ,sacrament4 ,but if it be true that by consecration the bread and wine become ,his ,body and ,blood1 if our ,lord ,himself1 eternal ,god1 very ,man1 glorified1 spiritual1 risen1 ascended1 is present in the ,sacrament1 then in the adoration there is no idolatry1 but rather the worship which is the bounden duty of a ,christian4 ,back to the ,new ,testament1 back to the words of ,christ1 and in reading them we find no evidence that ,jesus at that farewell meal ,he partook with ,his disciples founded an elaborate and miraculous ordinance2 we cannot read into the words of ,christ any intention on ,his part to place in the hands of ,churchmen a spiritual weapon to be used offensively and defensively in all their struggle and strategy for the ,church's temporal aggrandizement1 as it has been used to subdue and flatten down the people under their spiritual charge4 ,the miracle of the ,real ,presence is of man's device4 ,it is an offspring born of priestcraft and pride4 ,christ has no part or lot in it4 ,the impression the gospels compel in us is that ,christ was fighting the sacerdotal error in religion throughout ,his whole ministry1 and for the ,church to claim ,him as its founder is the greatest irony of ,christianity4 ,but time works changes4 ,as the story of the crucifixion of ,christ receded with the lapse of lengthening years and became a distant tradition in ,church history1 the desire possessed men's minds for something tangible to nail their faith to2 the desire was to bring ,christ back again somehow into touch with living men and women4 ,the blank of the long1 silent ages grew intolerable4 ,the chilling doubt of ,thomas haunted men afresh2 the longing to see and touch the wounded ,christ gathered force4 ,to gratify the religious devotion of the people1 art did its best to portray in coloured pictures ,jesus ,christ the man who walked in ,galilee and died in ,jewry2 and the ,fathers of the ,church responded promptly to the longing1 and found to hand a ready-made mystery which answered the purpose and helped to stay the profound religious hunger of the day--a mystery which could be amplified to meet every expanding need of the people1 and the people accepted with greedy faith the doctrine of the indwelling bodily presence of ,jesus ,christ in the bread and wine on the altar4 ,these elements1 they were assured1 became changed into the real flesh and blood of ,christ when consecrated by the priest1 and the people acclaimed with reverent joy the wonderful transformation which brought ,christ so near1 and drew what religious consolation they could from the sacred illusion imposed upon them4 ,the olden gods were returning in a new form4 ,the people did not know and did not want to know the truth about their creed4 ,they had neither the leisure nor the brains to think for themselves4 ,the cake is baked2 it is eaten with relish4 ,hungry men at table do not analyze their food2 they eat it and are thankful4 ,the people did not know1 but the people had feeling4 ,the ,church stirred their feelings to the uttermost1 played upon the heart-strings of joy and sorrow1 hope and fear1 faith and love1 until their tumultuous emotions were aroused and they believed blindly according to priestly orders4 ,we would make neither more nor less importance of the ,lord's ,supper1 only just what ,christ made of it to ,his disciples and to plain people through all time4 ,let us try and possess the ancient feeling that possessed the disciples when they sat at table with the ,master1 and1 stripped of ecclesiastical emblazonment1 we touch the ,supper in its primitive simplicity as instituted in the upper room with the shadow of death shrouding the ,founder of the ,feast4 ,he commanded ,his disciples after ,his death to meet together thus and to break bread in remembrance of ,him4 ,it is in memory of ,christ1 if the ,new ,testament report of it is correct4 ,christ appointed the solemn rite to be an ever-living witness to ,his own love to man1 and we in response make it our pledge of undying love and devotion to ,him4 ,it is the ,sacrament of the ages4 ,it never varies in purpose2 it never stales by observance4 ,the ,lord's ,table is the prepared place on earth where the ,church ,catholic should assemble to commemorate the great ,sacrifice of ,golgotha1 and to commune with one another in spiritual fellowship and brotherly unity4 ,it is a commemorative act1 and as such1 uncorrupted and undefiled by human inventions1 it should have come down to us1 but the ,church has tampered with the holy thing4 ,christ did not intend us to idolize the bread and wine4 ,it is the legend of the ,brazen ,serpent repeating itself in modern version4 ,human folly boasts of little originality4 ,it borrows its sins from its ancestors and charges them up to the children's children4 ,the ,brazen ,serpent that ,moses lifted on a pole in the wilderness for the healing of the people was a symbol of ,god's saving mercy to the nation4 ,alas6 the people turned the brass image into an idol and in course of time worshipped it1 and so did evil in the sight of the ,lord4 ,christ did not intend us to idolize the ,sacrament2 ,christ commanded us to eat and drink the bread and wine1 not to worship it4 ,the ,sacrament is in memory of ,christ's sacrifice3 it is not a repetition of it4 ,to many ,churchmen it is the simplicity of the service that savours of an offence4 ,human vanity dearly loves display1 pomp1 emotion1 with which to salt its devotion to the ,almighty and make it palatable to the ,deity and to itself4 ,naaman the ,syrian is not the only man who demands splendour of ceremony to colour a religious function in which he engages4 ,his pampered soul feeds on fulsome flattery1 and if he does not get it he is angry to the uttermost4 ,,billing ,,and ,,sons1 ,,ltd41 ,,printers1 ,,guildford1 ,,england4 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99 99,,our ,,villa ,,in ,,italy99 99,,by ,,joseph ,,lucas99 ,new and ,revised ,edition4 ,with #be full-page ,illustrations4 ,cloth1 #es4 net4 ,full of the lure of ,florence and1 indeed1 of all ,italy4444 ,mr4 ,lucas has written a book which will delight every ,english lover of that country4--,the ,guardian4 ,mr4 ,lucas has much to tell us of the ,italian people1 and the descriptions of his neighbours and servants bring them very vividly before us4--,the ,outlook4 ,the author has a good knowledge of ,italian furniture1 which is rare even among ,italians4444 ,his account of his search for rare 'cassoni' and ,tuscan sideboards1 chests of drawers 7'cassettoni'7 and chairs is delightful2 and the photographs of his finds1 which include a noble 'cassapanca' and two very fine tables1 are among the most interesting features of his book4--,the ,athenaeum4