There are moments when, catching a glimpse of the frightful weight of
care and pain with which mankind is laden, I am oppressed by the
thought that all improvement must come solely through the continued
selfish shifting of that burden from side to side, from shoulder to
shoulder; through the violent or cunning destruction of some of the
intolerable effects of selfishness in the past by selfishness in the
present and the future. And that in the midst of this terrible but
salutary scuffle for ease and security, the ideals of those who are
privileged enough to have any, may be not much more useful than the
fly on the axle-tree.
It may be, it doubtless is so nowadays, although none of us can tell
to what extent.
But even if it be so, let us who have strength and leisure for
preference and ideals prepare ourselves to fit, at least to acquiesce,
in the changes we are unable to bring about. Do not let us seek our
pleasure in things which we condemn, or remain attached to those which
are ours only through the imperfect arrangements which we deplore. We
are, of course, all tied tight in the meshes of our often worthless
and cruel civilisation, even as the saints felt themselves caught in
the meshes of bodily life. But even as they, in their day, fixed their
hopes on the life disembodied, so let us, in our turn, prepare our
souls for that gradual coming of justice on earth which we shall never
witness, by forestalling its results in our valuations and our wishes.