§ 58

Dignify it by exertion, defile it by apathy or worse. The churches looked upon the Lay Order with suspicion at first. Inclined to question their Dogmas, they called them “Socinians,” Atheists and even harder names we know of, triumphantly adopted by Dogmatists. The Cardinals of Rome mistrusted St. Francis and his little following, who cut at the root of their wealth. The Cardinals drove about in splendid carriages, were attended by gaily dressed footmen, of whom they demanded servility. The Franciscans walked, footsore in snow and hail, were exposed to scorching sun, were hungry, were beggars, but inside them they felt the warmth of the Love of God, and a burning love for their fellow-men. The Order has something of Monasticism, and why not? It is Monasticism purged of its morbidity. It is not eager to save souls for the next world, but to nourish them for their progress in this which is, after all, the only one that can be demonstrated and dealt with with certainty. They do not ask for joy after death, but before it; and they find it in labour, in labour for the less instructed, in the Doctrine of THOU more than of I. They remember a fine ancient saying, “Love enters the soul when self has evacuated the fortress of the heart.”

The word soul has been often used in this story of my dream. What do I mean by it? I mean that part of a nation and individual that is immortal! Not longing to escape damnation or to attain Joy hereafter, but escape it here, and realise it here. They teach the Art of living, “Ars Vivendi,” and it is followed with honesty and just pride, “The Art of dying, Ars Moriendi,” will take care of itself. They do not preach the joys of a life to come, but of this one which we can make joyful if we please. They are Idealists who are, at the same time practical; Rationalists, if you like so to call them. They accept matter, not as a check or obstacle to the conduct of an Ideal, but as inseparable from it. They teach Free Will, and have nothing to say to Predestination. The former is certain, the latter is supposition. It is the common sense which pervades their work that is making it respected. They teach an Ideal that can be touched if not entirely reached: that an Ideal is not a phantom.

Education is spreading persistently, not by leaps or bounds, but systematically and surely. Facts are taught, but not as a parrot is. Then cause and effect, of which the parrot, as far as we know is ignorant, is the very kernel of History. Young people are led to reason, to obey their instincts so far as they are justified. Facts are useful, but too many piled together puzzle more than invigorate the mind. If we try to hold too many seeds in our hand some must escape through the fingers. Young people are led, not driven, and with discretion. They are not crammed with useless facts. Every child, rich and poor, is initiated to a handicraft. In that there is no distinction; this was forced upon us when it became certain that we should have to be in a measure our own craftsmen and our own servants. The rise in wages made that a sine quâ non, and it has been met. The class that served as household domestics is doing now a work much more serviceable to the country; it is working on the land, both men and women are.

Performing our own jobs of mending, we have released a whole army of small hand-to-mouth trades. This is economical; indeed, at the price “little labour” demanded it was imperative, and since it has become a habit nobody grumbles. Home exercises of prudence and economy fill up moments which grow to be hours otherwise wasted. An effect this has had is remarkable; it has been the cause of greater, not less independence of self-reliance which tells upon character. We are very wary of men of law like Napoleon; we mistrust them as we mistrust all sophists. We do not care for them as members of our Councils; we use them as referees, not as helmsmen. The man of law goes round and round in a circle in equal distance from the centre, he avoids the centre. We like the guilty punished, but we do not like that he gets off on a point of law when the man who got him off knows perfectly well he is guilty, this is playing with Justice, not administering it.