On
the higher plane he may have a more fastidious club or two, a more
epicurean sense of enjoyment, more leisure and more luxury; but the type
wherever found is the same. Life is an utter burden to him; in his soul
is no interest, no inspiration, no energy, and no hope. Let him be no
object of envy. Here a friend pats you on the shoulder: "Quite right; be
neither an emigrant nor a waster; but be practical; have no illusions;
deal with possibilities--who can say what is in the future? We must
face these facts." Our confident friend lacks a sense of humour. He
would put your plan by for its bearing on the future, but he proposes
one himself that the future must justify. He tells you circumstances
will not be in your favour: he assumes them in his own. But we only
claim that our principles will rule the future as they have ruled the
past; for the circumstances no man can speak. He calls you a dreamer for
your principles, but he can't show, now nor in history, that his
exemplars were ever justified. We are all dreamers, then; but some have
ugly dreams, while the dreams of others are beautiful worlds,
star-lighted and full of music.
X
Let the newborn enthusiast, just come eagerly to the flag, be warned of
hours of depression that seize even the most earnest, the boldest and
the strongest. Our work is the work of men, subject to such vicissitudes
as hover around all human enterprise; and every man enrolled must face
hard struggles and dark hours.
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