Then many lost heart, and said that surely he cared not for times and
observances, else he would have said more about them. When he made the
journey, it was his chief reproach that he heeded not these things.
With him, ceremony or observance rose directly out of the need for it,
each one as the need was felt. To imitate him is to feel as he felt.
With him feelings gave rise to word and action. "So will it be with
us. It is not for us to imitate him in the fashion of his coat or the
cut of his beard. He went over the road giving help and comfort, as
the sun gives light or the flowers shed fragrance, all unconscious of
the good he did." And in this wise did many imitate him. They turned
aside the boughs of the trees, that the sunshine of heaven might fall
upon their neighbors. And behold, the same sunshine fell upon them
also. They removed the stones from the road, that others might not
stumble over them. And others removed the stones from their way also.

But many were still in doubt and hesitation. The record, they said,
was not explicit enough. They counseled together, and gathered in
bands, and chose leaders who should tell them how to feel. And the
leaders gave close heed to all his feelings and to the times and
seasons proper to each. Here he was joyous, and at a signal all the
baud broke into merry laughter. Here he was stern, and the multitude
set its teeth. There he wept, and tears fell like rain from
innumerable eyes.

As time went on, repeated action made action easy. The springs of
feeling were readily troubled. Still each one felt, or tried to feel,
all that he should have felt. No one dared admit to his fellows that
his tears were a sham, his joy a pretense, his sadness a lie. But
often, in the bottom of their hearts, men would confess with real tears
that they had no genuine feeling there.