The situation is one which
tends to develop vehement and passionate prophets, dealing in vague
and remote generalisations, when what one needs is practical
prudence, and the effective power of foreseeing contingencies. One
who like myself loves security, leisure, beauty and peace, and is
actuated by a vague and benevolent wish that all should have the
same opportunities as myself, feels himself a mere sentimentalist
in the matter, without a single effective quality. I can see the
problem, I can grieve over it, I can feel my faith in God totter
under the weight of it, but that is all.
July 15, 1889.
One of the hardest things to face in the world is the grim fact
that our power of self-improvement is limited. Of some qualities we
do not even possess the germs. Some qualities we have in minute
quantities, but hardly capable of development; some few qualities
we possess in fuller measure, and they are capable of development;
but even so, our total capacity of growth is limited, conditioned
by our vital energy, and we have to face the fact that if we
develop one set of qualities we must neglect another set.
I think of it in a whimsical and fantastic image, the best I can
find.
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