legions, and make articulate the dream of men, and make splendid their
triumph. He is the prophet of to-morrow, though you deny him to-day. He
is not like to you, supercilious and aloof--he would have you for a
passionate brother, would raise your spirit in ecstasy, flood your mind
with thought, and touch your lips with fire. Because of his
sensitiveness he knows every mood and every heart and gives a voice and
a song to all. You might know him for a good comrade, where freedom is
to win or to hold, over in the van or the breach; able to deal good
blows and take them in the fine manner, a fine fighter; not with
darkened brow crying, "an eye for an eye"--for who _could_ give him
blow for blow or match his deed with a deed?--but one of open front and
open hand who will count it happiness to have made for a victory he may
not live to enjoy, as ready to die in its splendour as he had been to
live through the darkness before the dawn; remembering with soldier
tenderness the comrades of old battles, forgetting the malice of old
enemies; a high example of the magnanimous spirit, happily not yet
unknown on earth; with fine generosity and noble fire, full of that
great love the common cry can never make other than humanising and
beautiful, not without a gleam of humour more than half divine, he will
pass, leaving to the foe that hated him heartily equally with the friend
that loved him well, the wonder of his thought and the rapture of his
melody.




CHAPTER XII

RELIGION