His great ideal is that
of manhood. Be a man, he cries aloud, not an artist, not a reasoner, not
any other kind or detail of humanity, but be a man. But then that means,
Be a creature whose life swings far out beyond this world and its
affairs--swings dangerously between heaven and hell. Eternity is in the
heart of every man. The fashionable modern gospel of Pragmatism is
telling us to-day that we should not vex ourselves about the ultimate
truth of theories, but inquire only as to their value for life here and
now, and the practical needs which they serve. But the most practical of
all man's needs is his need of some contact with a higher world than
that of sense. "To say that a man is an idealist is merely to say that
he is a man." In the scale of differences between important and
unimportant earthly things, it is the spiritual and not the material
that counts. "An ignorance of the other world is boasted by many men of
science; but in this matter their defect arises, not from ignorance of
the other world, but from ignorance of this world." "The moment any
matter has passed through the human mind it is finally and for ever
spoilt for all purposes of science.
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