believe. I may believe that there is no God, that I am self-
contained, that my brief sojourn here serves no purpose; that in the
economy of this world without limit my existence counts for as
little as the evanescent hue of a flower--I may believe all this, in
a deeply religious spirit, with the infinite throbbing within me;
you may believe in one all-powerful God, who cherishes and protects
you, yet your belief may be mean, and petty, and small. I shall be
happier than you, and calmer, if my doubt is greater, and nobler,
and more earnest than is your faith; if it has probed more deeply
into my soul, traversed wider horizons, if there are more things it
has loved. And if the thoughts and feelings on which my doubt
reposes have become vaster and purer than those that support your
faith, then shall the God of my disbelief become mightier and of
supremer comfort than the God to whom you cling. For, indeed, belief
and unbelief are mere empty words; not so the loyalty, the greatness
and profoundness of the reasons wherefore we believe or do not
believe.

80. We do not choose these reasons; they are rewards that have to be
earned. Those we have chosen are only slaves we have happened to
buy; and their life is but feeble; they hold themselves shyly aloof,
ever watching for a chance to escape. But the reasons we have
deserved stand faithfully by us; they are so many pensive Antigones,
on whose help we may ever rely. Nor can such reasons as these be
forcibly lodged in the soul; for indeed they must have dwelt there
from earliest days, have spent their childhood there, nourished on
our every thought and action; and tokens recalling a life of
devotion and love must surround them on every side. And as they
throw deeper root--as the mists clear away from our soul and reveal
a still wider horizon. so does the horizon of happiness widen also;