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TOMISMINI
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LIBRARY
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1837
VERITAS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SEMURIDUS
MURIBUS VOUC
LUHU JEHIBIKATHIL
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SPENINSULAM AMINAM
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SCIENTIA
نند.
OF THE
MÁRKAS
UWAJI,
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GOZDZ

1
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LY OF TOLSTOI
L1

891.78
Work while yet.
765 kh
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LONDON
Have the Light
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
*
**
1890
A.25
HEINEMANN'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY, EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE, VOL IV.
MANN
This Volume may also be had bound in cloth, price 3s. 6d.
****
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*
10

**
:
7
÷
beinemann's International Library.
EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE.
Times-"A venture which deserves encouragement."
Volume I. (Fifth Thousand.)
IN GOD'S WAY.

By BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON. Translated from the Norwegian
by ELIZABETH CARMICHAEL.
With an Introduction by the Editor.
Athenæum "Without doubt the most important, and the most interesting work published
during the twelve months.'
Saturday Review-"The English reader could desire no better introduction to contem-
porary foreign fiction than this notable novel."
Speaker "In God's Way' is really a notable book."
Volume II. (Third Thousand.)
PIERRE AND JEAN.
By GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
Translated from the French by
Clara Bell.
With an Introduction by the Editor.
Athenæum.—“There is much to be said for the consensus of judgment which ranks it
amongst the best gems of modern French fiction."
Sunday Times.—"Delightfully fresh and breezy in tone and as pure as the heart could
wish.'
""
Manchester Examiner and Times.-"No competent judge can doubt that it is the work
of an accomplished artist, whose every touch has assurance and adequacy."
Volume III. (Just ready.)
THE CHIEF JUSTICE.

By EMIL FRANZOS, Author of "For the Right." Translated
from the German by MILES CORBET.
With an Introduction by the Editor.
LONDON:
WM. HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.

bleinemann's International Library.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
Į
THERE is nothing in which the Anglo-Saxon world differs
more from the world of the Continent of Europe than
in its fiction. English readers are accustomed to satisfy
their curiosity with English novels, and it is rarely
indeed that we turn aside to learn something of the
interior life of those other countries the exterior
scenery of which is often so familiar to us. We
climb the Alps, but are content to know nothing of
the pastoral romances of Switzerland. We steam in
and out of the picturesque fjords of Norway, but never
guess what deep speculation into life and morals is
made by the novelists of that sparsely peopled but
richly endowed nation. We stroll across the courts of
the Alhambra, we are listlessly rowed upon Venetian
canals and Lombard lakes, we hasten by night through
the roaring factories of Belgium; but we never pause
to inquire whether there is now flourishing a Spanish,
181


#
EDITOR'S NOTE.
an Italian, a Flemish school of fiction. Of Russian
novels we have lately been taught to become partly
aware, but we do not ask ourselves whether Poland may
not possess a Dostoieffsky and Portugal a Tolstoï.
Yet, as a matter of fact, there is no European country
that has not, within the last half-century, felt the dew
of revival on the threshing-floor of its worn-out schoolls
of romance. Everywhere there has been shown by
young men, endowed with a talent for narrative, a
vigorous determination to devote themselves to a vivid
and sympathetic interpretation of nature and of maja.
In almost every language, too, this movement has
tended to display itself more and more in the direction
of what is reported and less of what is created. Fancy
has seemed to these young novelists a poorer thing than
observation; the world of dreams fainter than the world
of men. They have not been occupied mainly with
what might be or what should be, but with what is, and,
in spite of all their shortcomings, they have combined to
produce a series of pictures of existing society in each of
their several countries such as cannot fail to form an
archive of documents invaluable to futurity.
But to us they should be still more valuable. To
travel in a foreign country is but to touch its surface.
Under the guidance of a novelist of genius we penetrate
to the secrets of a nation, and talk the very language of
its citizens. We may go to Normandy summer after
Yps

EDITOR'S NOTE.
summer and know less of the manner of life that proceeds
under those gnarled orchards of apple-blossom than we
learn from one tale of Guy de Maupassant's. The
present series is intended to be a guide to the inner
geography of Europe. It presents to our readers a series
of spiritual Baedekers and Murrays. It will endeavour
to keep pace with every truly characteristic and vigorous
expression of the novelist's art in each of the principal
European countries, presenting what is quite new if it
is also good, side by side with what is old, if it has not
hitherto been presented to our public. That will be
selected which gives with most freshness and variety the
different aspects of continental feeling, the only limits
of selection being that a book shall be, on the one hand,
amusing, and, on the other, wholesome.
One difficulty which must be frankly faced is that of
subject. Life is now treated in fiction by every race
but our own with singular candour. The novelists of
the Lutheran North are not more fully emancipated
from prejudice in this respect than the novelists of the
Catholic South. Everywhere in Europe a novel is
looked upon now as an impersonal work, from which
the writer, as a mere observer, stands aloof, neither
blaming nor applauding. Continental fiction has learned
to exclude, in the main, from among the subjects of its
attention, all but those facts which are of common
experience, and thus the novelists have determined

#
EDITOR'S NOTE.
to disdain nothing and to repudiate nothing which is
common to humanity; much is freely discussed, even
in the novels of Holland and of Denmark, which our
race is apt to treat with a much more gingerly dis-
cretion. It is not difficult, however, we believe-it is
certainly not impossible-to discard all which may
justly give offence, and yet to offer to an English
public as many of the masterpieces of European fiction
as we can ever hope to see included in this library. It
will be the endeavour of the editor to search on all
hands and in all languages for such books as combine
the greatest literary value with the most curious and
amusing qualities of manner and matter.
EDMUND GOSSE.
WORK WHILE YE HAVE
THE LIGHT
beinemann's International Library.
Edited by EDMUND GOSSE.
Crown 8vo, in paper covers, 2s. 6d., or cloth limp, 3s. 6d.
IN GOD'S WAY.
By BJÖRNSTJErne björnson.
Translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Carmichael.
སཱ་
PIERRE AND JEAN.
By GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
Translated from the French by Clara Bell.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE.
By EMIL FRANZOS.
Translated from the German by Miles Corbet.
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE
LIGHT.
By COUNT LYOF TOLSTOI.
Translated from the Russian by F. F. Dillon, Ph.D.
FANTASY.
By MATILDA SERAO.
Translated from the Italian by Henry Harland and
Paul Sylvester.
•
Other Volumes will be announced later.
Each Volume will contain a Specially Written Introduction
by the Editor.
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD ST., W.C.
WORK WHILE YE
Levi Nikolaevich graf
1
HAVE THE LIGHT
¡
EY
(LYOF) TOLSTOĬ, 1828-1910
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
SCRIPTA
BY
E. J. DILLON, Ph.D.

MA
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1890
[All rights reserved]
KATEG
Librarian
Stevens
10-19-27
15610
INTRODUCTION.
IT has been the misfortune of Count Tolstoi to
become widely known in the West of Europe at
the very moment when he was performing a
complete change of dress. The legitimate
enthusiasm which his works of the imagination
might awaken has been confused with the
perhaps equally legitimate, but certainly much
more obvious and vulgar surprise at the amazing
character of his new social and religious views.
If the alteration had taken place sooner or
later, it would have been pleasanter for us and
juster to him. If he had always written in a
language which we could understand, we should
long ago have comprehended the nature of his
literary genius, and should have been less
startled by his moral transformation; if the
presentation to Europe had been delayed, we
should have taken his work as a whole. But in
point of fact, we were constantly being assured
2
INTRODUCTION.
that behind the dyed curtains of that Scythian
tent there sat a mysterious chieftain, arrayed in
all the splendours of the Orient. We tear the
veil aside at last, and discover a gentleman
in puris naturalibus, selecting a new set of gar-
ments. It is true that this disturbing circum-
stance has enormously added to the fame and
success of the Russian writer, and that a hundred
persons are found to discuss his nakedness to
one who cares to think of what he was when he
was clothed. But this is little consolation to
the student of pure literature, who feels inclined
to drive out the social group, and to guard Count
Tolstoi's doors till he has wrapped himself once
more in raiment, whether civilised or savage.
Of the moral speculations of the great Russian
novelist nothing shall here be said. Most of
what has passed for recent criticism has occupied
itself with a vain and capricious agitation of
Tolstoi's views on marriage, on education, on
non-resistance to authority, to the exclusion of
all other considerations. It would be absurd
to deny that some of these theories irresistibly
invite discussion, or that the distinguished
gravity of the author is not justly fascinating
INTRODUCTION.
to an age which has been exhausted and
lacerated by the funniness of its funny men.
But it is difficult not to see, also, that specula-
tion of this kind has been pursued in one form
or another by every generation, that it has
never yet succeeded in solving the riddle of this
painful earth, and that in contrast to its evasive-
ness and intangibility, the positive consideration
of literature as literature has a great charm. In
these few words, then, Tolstoi will not be treated
as the prophet or saviour of society, but as the
writer of novels. For this extremely unpopular
mode of regarding him, a critic's best excuse is
to recall those touching and noble words written
by Tourgenieff in his last hours to his great
successor :-
"Dearest Lyof Nikolaievitch, it is long since
I wrote to you. I have been in bed, and it is
my death-bed. I cannot get well; that is no
longer to be thought of. I write to you ex-
pressly to tell you how happy I have been to
be your contemporary, and to present to you a
last, a most urgent request. Dear friend, come
back to literary work! This gift came to you
whence all gifts come to us.
Ah! how happy
INTRODUCTION.
I should be if I could think that you would
listen to my request. My friend, great writer
of our land of Russia, grant me this request."
The author of Anna Karenine has granted it
in some degree, but how rarely, how fitfully,
with how little of the artist's fire and consecra-
tion! Let us hope that in a near future he will
give us of the things of the spirit in less
niggardly a fashion. Let him remember that
at the present moment there is no man living
from whom a sane and complete work of fiction,
on a large scale, would be more universally
welcomed.
I.
The life of the Russian novelist has often been
narrated, but presents no features of very re-
markable interest. Count Lyof Nikolaievitch
Tolstoi was born on August 28 (0.S.), 1828, at
Yasnaya Polyana, an estate on the road to Orel,
a few miles out of Tula, in the centre of Russia.
This place and its surroundings were described
in a very charming paper contributed by Mr.
Kennen to The Century Magazine for June
1887. Yasnaya Polyana has been the alpha and
INTRODUCTION.
omega of Tolstoi's life, all absences from it being
of the nature of episodes. He has made it his
sole residence for the last thirty years, and it
is the scene of his much talked-of social expe-
riments.
We were long under the impression that
Tourgenieff and Tolstoi were isolated appari-
tions on a bare stage. But as familiarity with
Russian fiction increases in the West, we see the
same structural growths proceeding in Russia
as in the other countries of the world. The
novel there, in its modern form, began to exist
about 1840, and Gogol, whose Dead Souls ap-
peared in 1842, was its creator. The "Men of
the Forties," as they are called, arose from the
shadow of Gogol, and were young men when his
book made its first profound sensation. The
birth dates of Gontcharoff, 1813, Tourgenieff,
1818, Pisemsky, 1820, and Dostoieffsky, 1821,
explain why these four illustrious novelists were
roused and fired by the publication of Dead
Souls. It came to them, with its realism, its
deep popular sympathy, and its strange humour,
as a revelation at the very moment when the
brain of a young man of genius is most incan-
INTRODUCTION.
descent. But Tolstoi, younger by seven years
than the youngest of these, did not arrive at
intellectual maturity till after the first ardour of
the new life had passed away. Russia, in its
rapid awakening, was a different place in 1850
from what it had been in 1840, and to under-
stand Tolstoi aright we must distinguish him
from the Men of the Forties.
In endeavouring to form an idea of the
literary influences which moulded his mind, we
are likely to be more perplexed than aided by
the strange book called Childhood, Boyhood,
Youth, which bears a striking relation to the
recently published autobiography of the infancy
and adolescence of Pierre Loti. In each book
the portrait is so different from what, one is
convinced, any other person, however observant
and analytical, would have made of the child in
question, that one is dubious how far the tale
should be looked upon as a charming and un-
conscious fiction. In Tolstoi the little anecdote
of the imaginary dream, the incidents of which
by being repeated, grew to seem absolutely
true, and moved the inventor to tears of self-
pity, though given as a sign of scrupulous verity
INTRODUCTION.
in autobiography, points to a tendency which
is very natural and in a novelist very fortu-
nate. But a strange fact is that these semi-
mythical, intensely personal and curiously
minute notes of the mind of a child were not
made late in life, when the memory often recurs
to the remotest past, but at the starting-point
of the writer's career. Before he had started he
stopped to look back, and he began in literature
where most old men leave off. The Childhood,
Boyhood, Youth was commenced as early as
1851, before Tolstoi opened his brief adventure
as a soldier. This book appears to be one of
its author's favourites; he was long caressing it
before it first appeared, and he has entirely re-
moulded it once, if not twice. It is excessively
ingenious, and one notes with interest that the
first book which attracted the future agricul-
turist's attention was a treatise on the growing of
cabbages. The analysis of the feelings of a
nervous child was seldom carried out in a more
masterly fashion. But the book is often dull,
which the author's later work can hardly be
accused of being.
}
b
1
İNTRODUCTION.
*
II.
It was Caucasia, that Wunderland of Russian
sentiment and romance, which first awakened
the imagination of Tolstoi. The Vicomte de
Vogüé, in his delightful chapter on the idealism
of Russia, has shown us what a Byronic fascina-
tion was exercised by the moonlit gorges of the
Caucasus on the poets of seventy years ago.
It was to a province steeped in romantic
melancholy, penetrated by reminiscences of
Pouchkine and Lermantof, that Tolstoi, a spirit
of a very different order, travelled in 1851.
Suddenly captured by the genius of the place,
he enlisted in the army, and became an officer
of artillery in a mountain fortress over the
Terek. Here he began to be an author,
though he published none of his Caucasian
studies till he had left the Caucasus, on the
breaking out of the Turkish war, in 1853. The
contrast between the Asiatic and himself is the
first problem which moves him in the world of
fiction. Now it is illustrated by Olenine, the
victim of ennui, who flings himself into the
friendship of the savage Orientals; now by
Jiline, who, unwillingly and after a gallant
INTRODUCTION.
struggle, is captured and made to live among
them, but ultimately casts his chains aside; now
by the gross and comfort-loving Kosteline, who
pines away in the Tartar camp, and dies. In
each case, though not always so romantically as
in The Cossacks, what interests the novelist is the
difference of race and instinct, rendering the inner
meaning of those outward trappings whose
barbaric picturesqueness tempts him to loiter
on its details. Tolstoi left the Caucasus a
skilful writer, expert in the conduct of a nar-
rative, but still tinged with the blue mist of
romanticism.
But he had hardly started on the three years'
laborious campaign in which he was to learn so
much of life, than there was published at home
a book which revealed to Russian readers a new
genius. Polikouchka was issued in 1854, the
year after The Cossacks appeared, and if it
achieved a less popular success, it deserved
closer attention. It may be that Tolstoi, who
has filled wider canvasses, has never painted a
genre-picture more thoroughly characteristic of
himself than this study of manners on a large
Russian estate. Polikṛuchka is the story of a
[
INTRODUCTION.
serf, who practises as a veterinary surgeon, but
who is really a quack and a thief, through weak-
ness and drink, since he is not essentially a bad
fellow. His mistress, the Barina, a sentimen-
talist, pities him, and believes that if he went
through an ordeal, on his honour, it might be
the saving of him. Accordingly she sends him
to a neighbouring town to fetch a large sum of
money. Every one, even the man's wife, believes
that he will either steal it or squander it on
drink. However, he starts, gets the money,
returns faithfully, and just before reaching home
loses it. Unable to face the shame of this
discovery, he hangs himself, and the money is
found, all safe, directly afterwards.
We may take Polikouchka as typical of Tol-
stoi's work at this time. We first notice that,
although the book is short and episodical, the
author has lavished upon us an astounding
number of types, all sharply defined. The
recruiting scene in the Mir directly points to
the skill with which the vast spaces of War and
Peace were presently to be made to swarm with
human life. Then the power of sustained
analysis of the complex phenomena of character,
INTRODUCTION.
in its stranger forms, is now seen to be com-
pletely developed. The mixture of vanity,
cupidity, honour and stupidity which riots in
the brain of Polikouchka as he drives off to
fetch the money is described with a masterly
effect, and in a manner peculiar to Tolstoi. Nor
is this story less typical of its author in its
general construction than in its specific features.
In later years, indeed, Tolstoi rarely opens a tale
with the sprightly gaiety of Polikouchka, yet he
has preserved the habit-he preserves it even in
the Kreutzer Sonata—of beginning his stories
with a scene of an amusing nature. In Poli-
kouchka the tragical, the mystical element is
delayed longer than has since been the author's
wont, but it comes. The ghost of the suicide
fingering about for the money in Doutlov's house
on the fatal night is the signal for the conven-
tionality of the tale, as a piece of literature, to
break up, and this book, which began so gaily
and with its feet so firmly planted on common
life, closes in a scene of wild and scarcely intelli-
gible saturnalia.
Unless I am mistaken, and no exact biblio-
graphy of Tolstoi's writings seems to be at hand
}
I
INTRODUCTION.
-the story which we call Katia (and the
Russians Conjugal Happiness) was written while
the novelist was still fighting the Turks. The
extraordinary volume named Sketches from
Sevastopol certainly belongs to this period.
Totally distinct as these are the one being a
study of peaceful upper-class life on a Russian
estate, the other reflecting the agitation and
bewilderment of active war-they show an
advance in intellectual power which takes much
the same direction in either case. Tolstoi is
now seen to be a clairvoyant of unexampled
adroitness. If "adroit" be thought an adjec-
tive incompatible with clairvoyance, it has at
least not been used here without due considera-
tion. The peculiar quality of Tolstol's imagina-
tion seems to require this combined attribution
of the intentional and the accidental. His most
amazing feats in analysis are henceforth not
strictly experimental, but conjectural. The
feelings of Mikhailov when the bomb burst, and
he was wounded, may have been experienced;
those of Praskouchine, who was killed, can but
have been created. Few readers have not been
forced to acknowledge the amazing power of the
INTRODUCTION.
passage last alluded to. But to call it realism,
in the ordinary sense, is to rob it of half its value
as a singularly lofty exercise of the imagination.
Yet it is precisely in this aptitude for conjectural
analysis that the occasion is presented for ambi-
tion to o'ervault itself. It is the mind that
sees the non-experienced quite as clearly as the
experienced, which is most liable to lose con-
sciousness of the difference between reality and
unreality. The spirit that "walks upon the
winds with lightness" may step into the cloud of
mysticism without having noticed its presence.
III.
The year 1858 was a great period of awaken-
ing in Russian fiction. It saw the publica-
tion of Gontcharoff's masterpiece, Oblomof;
Pisemsky then rose to a height he was never to
touch again in his great realistic novel, A Thou-
sand Souls; Tourganieff produced his exquisite
Assja, and prepared the distinguished and
pathetic surprise of his Nest of Nobles. Dos-
toieffsky, still away in Siberia, was putting
together his notes for the The House of the Dead.
Tolstoi, plunged for the moment in the fashion-
INTRODUCTION.
able life of St. Petersburg and Moscow, could
not be ignorant of this sudden revival of letters,
nor unmoved by it. Hitherto he had been
content to obtain striking effects within re-
stricted limits. If his short stories had not
always closed with artistic regularity, it was
that he felt the true observer's disinclination to
draw the strings together artificially. But he
could be contented with small spaces no longer.
His mind was now set on the production of
works whose proportions should be properly
related to the vast and complex mass of figures
which was ever moving in procession behind
his eyelids.
His next important publication, Three Deaths,
which came out in 1859, resembles a bundle of
studies by a great artist who contemplates a
gigantic composition. The opening description
of the sick lady in her carriage, travelling in an
atmosphere of eau-de-Cologne and dust, with
its undemonstrative inventory of telling details,
and its extreme sincerity of observation, is
exactly like a page, like any page, from the two
great novels which were to succeed it. But the
volume is not without faults; of three selected
INTRODUCTION.
deaths, two should scarcely have been taken
from the same class of the same sex. The
final picture of the conscience-smitten coachman
chopping a cross is not without a certain vague-
ness. We hurry on, since a book awaits us
which drowns Three Deaths as a star is drowned
in the sunrise.
Tolstoi was thirty-two when he published his
first great novel, War and Peace, in 1860.
Very soon after its appearance, he took himself
out of society, and began his retirement at
Yasnaya Polyana. For fifteen years the world
heard comparatively little of him, and then he
crowned the edifice of his reputation with the
successive volumes of Anna Karenine (1875-77).
It is by these two epics of prose fiction, these
massive productions, that he is mainly known.
By degrees the fame of these amazing books
passed beyond the ring of the Russian language,
and now most educated persons in the West
of Europe have read them. They dwarf all other
novels by comparison. The immense area of
place and time which they occupy is unexampled,
and the first thing which strikes us on laying
them down is their comprehensive character.
INTRODUCTION.
4
The work of no other novelist is so populous
as that of Tolstoi. His books seem to include
the entire existence of generations. In War
and Peace we live with the characters through
nearly a quarter of a century. They are young
when we are introduced to them; we accompany
them through a hundred vicissitudes of disease
and health, ill fortune and good, to death or to
old age. There is no other novelist, whose name
I can recall, who gives anything like this sense
of presenting all that moves beneath the cope of
heaven. Even Stendhal is dwarfed by Tolstoi,
on his own ground; and the Russian novelist
joins to this anthill of the soldier and the
courtier, those other worlds of Richardson, of
Balzac, of Thackeray. Through each of Tolstoi's
two macrocosms, thronged with highly vitalised
personages, walks
more tenderly
described and vividly presented than any of the
others, the figure in whom the passions of the
author himself are enshrined, Pierre Bezouchof in
theone case, Levine in the other. This sort of hero,
to whose glorification, however, the author makes
no heroic concessions, serves to give a certain
solidity and continuity to the massive narration.
one man
INTRODUCTION.
These two books are so widely known, that in
so slig it a sketch as this, their constitution may
be taken as appreciated. Their magnificent
fulness of life in movement, their sumptuous
passages of description, their poignancy in
pathos and rapidity in action, their unwavering
devotion to veracity of impression, without
squalor or emphasis, these qualities have given
intellectual enjoyment of the highest kind
to thousands of English readers. They are
panoramas rather than pictures, yet finished so
finely and balanced so harmoniously that we
forget the immense scale upon which they are
presented, in our unflagging delight in the
variety and vivacity of the scene. No novelist
is less the slave of a peculiarity in one of his
characters than Tolstoi. He loves to take an
undeveloped being, such as André in War and
Peace, or Kitty Cherbatzky in Anna Karenine,
and to blow upon it with all the winds of heaven,
patiently noting its revulsions and advances,
its inconsistencies and transitions, until the
whole metamorphosis of its moral nature is
complete. There is no greater proof of the
extraordinary genius of Count Tolstoi than this,
INTRODUCTION.
:
:
that through the vast evolution of his plots, his
characters, though ever developing and changing,
always retain their distinct individuality. The
hard metal of reflected life runs ductile through
the hands of this giant of the imagination.
IV.
In 1877 Anna Karenine was finished, and the
applause with which it was greeted rang from
one end of Russia to the other. But the author
remained in unbroken seclusion at Yasnaya
Polyana. He began to write another romance
on the same colossal scale, this time taking up
the history of Central Europe at a point some-
what subsequent to the close of War and Peace.
Before he had written many chapters, that
crisis, that social and religious conversion ensued,
which has tinctured his life and work ever
since. He threw his novel aside, and, at first,
he was swallowed up in didactic activity, com-
posing those volumes on religion, education, and
sociology which have created so great a stir.
But he has to some slight degree, perhaps in
answer to Tourgenieff's dying prayer, returned
to the exercise of his talent, and has added new
INTRODUCTION.
stories, most of them short, and most of them
eccentric or mystical, to his repertory. He has
composed very simple tales for children and
peasants, and some of these are of a thrilling
naïveté. He has written, for older readers,
A Poor Devil and The Death of Ivan Iliitch.
To readers who desire a direct introduction
to the work of Count Tolstoi no better volume
can be recommended than that latest mentioned.
It is an unsurpassed example of his naturalism,
with its instinctive and yet imaginative interpre-
tation of the most secret sentiments of the soul.
It is piteously human; nay, the outcome of it all,
pushed to its logical conclusion, is of a kind to
break the very heart. Yet it is scarcely morbid,
because wholesomely observed; nor cynical,
because interpenetrated with pity and love.
Ivan Iliitch is a successful lawyer, rising to a
brilliant and commanding position in the world,
who sickens of an obscure internal complaint,
and slowly dies. His instincts, his thoughts, are
followed and evenly chronicled with extreme
minuteness, till all is obscured in the final
misery of dissolution. The feelings of the un-
happy wretch himself, of his wife, children,
INTRODUCTION.
servants, and friends, are rendered by Tolstoi
with that curious clairvoyance which we have
seen to be his cardinal gift.
In reflecting upon such a book as The Death
of Ivan Iliitch, it is natural to ask ourselves in
what the realism of Tolstoi consists, and how it
differs from that of M. Zola and Mr. Howells.
In the first place, their habit of producing an
impression by exhaustingly recording all the
details which it is possible to observe is not his.
Tolstoi, if they are called realists, should be styled
an impressionist, not in the sense used by the
artists of the present moment, but as Bastien
Lepage was an impressionist in painting. If
Zola and Howells fill the canvas with details to
its remotest corner, Tolstoi concentrates his
attention upon one figure or group, and renders
the effect of that single object with a force and
minute exactitude, which is positively amazing,
and which far surpasses theirs. Of course, a
book on such a scale as War and Peace would
not have been conducted to a close at all if the
Zola method had been brought to bear upon it.
But an examination of Tolstoi's short tales will
show that even when he has no need of hus-
·
ÎNTRODUCTION.
manner.
banding space, he adopts the same impressionist
With him, though observation is
vivid, imagination is more vigorous still, and he
cannot be tied down to describe more than he
chooses to create.
This may serve to explain why his style
sometimes seems so negligent, and even con-
fused, and why his stories invariably present
lacunæ, blank omissions where the writer has
simply overlooked a series of events. The pro-
gress of Anna's mind, for example, from after
her first meeting with Wronsky to the original
formation of her infatuated feeling for him, is a
hiatus. For some reason or other, it did not
interest the novelist, and he blandly omitted to
touch it. His lapses of memory, his negligence,
may likewise account for the tedious and inter-
minable length at which certain episodes are
treated. There are some country scenes in
Anna Karenine, in the course of which the
author seems to have gone to sleep, and
to be writing on automatically. Occasionally,
Tolstoi's love of what is real leads him to dis-
tinct puerility, as in The Story of a Horse, where
the satire, and something in the very tone of the
INTRODUCTION.
narrator's voice remind us, but not favourably,
of Hans Andersen. Yet these are slight points,
and they simply indicate the limits of a very
noble genius. The realists in Russia, as well as
elsewhere, have given us many good gifts-they
have awakened our observation, have exposed
our hallucinations, have shattered our absurd
illusions. It is mere injustice to deny that they
have been seekers after truth and life, and that
sometimes they have touched both the one
and the other. But one great gift has
commonly eluded
eluded their grasp. In their
struggle for reality and vividness, they have
too often been brutal, or trivial, or sordid.
Tolstoi is none of these. As vital as any one
of them all, he is what they are not-distin-
guished. His radical optimism, his belief in the
beauty and nobility of the human race, preserve
him from the Scylla and the Charybdis of
naturalism, from squalor and insipidity. They
secure for his best work that quality of
personal distinction which does more than any-
thing else to give durability to imaginative
literature.
EDMUND GOSSE.
WORK WHILE YE HAVE
THE LIGHT.
INTRODUCTION.
A NUMBER of guests were once gathered
under the hospitable roof of a rich man,
and it came to pass one day that their
conversation took a serious turn, the
theme being human life.
They discussed persons who were pre-
sent and persons who were absent, but
they were unable to find among all their
acquaintances one single man who was
satisfied with his life. Not that any one
A
لام
•
2
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
·
of them had reason to grumble at fortune ;
but not one of them could pretend to look
upon the life he was leading as one worthy
of a Christian. They all admitted that
they were squandering away their exist-
ence in a worldly manner, caring only for
themselves and their families; taking no
thought of their neighbour, and still less
of God.
Such was the gist of their remarks, and
they were singularly unanimous in finding
themselves guilty of leading godless un-
Christian lives.
66
Why then go on living in this miser-
able way?” exclaimed a youth who had
taken part in the discussion; "why con-
tinue to do what we ourselves condemn ?
Are we not masters of our own lives, free
to modify and change them at our will?
About one thing we are all perfectly clear :
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 3
our luxury, our effeminacy, our riches,
but more than all else our overweening
pride, and our consequent isolation from
our brethren, are hurrying us on to irre-
parable ruin. In order that we may be-
come distinguished and wealthy, we are
forced to deprive ourselves of all that
which constitutes the joy of human life;
we live huddled together in cities, we
grow lax and enervated, undermine our
health, and in spite of all our amuse-
ments die of ennui and of regret that our
life is so far removed from what it should
be. Now, why should we live so, why
thus ruthlessly blast our whole life-
wantonly trample upon a priceless boon
conferred upon us by God? I, for one,
will no longer debase myself by living
as heretofore. My unfinished course of
studies I will cast to the winds, for they
4 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
can lead me to nought else but that
bitterly painful existence of which you are
all now complaining. I will renounce my
estates and retire to the country, where I
shall spend all my time with the poor.
I
will work in their midst, will inure my-
self to such manual labour as they per-
form; and should my intellectual culture
be needful to them, I will impart it, not
through the medium of establishments and
books, but directly, living and working
among them as among brothers. Yes," he
concluded, casting an interrogative glance
at his father, who stood there listening to
his words, "I have taken my decision.”
"Your desire is noble at bottom," said
his father, "but it is the unripe fruit of
an undeveloped brain. To you everything
appears thus feasible because you have not
yet tasted life. What would become of us
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 5
and the world at large if we were to
pursue everything that seemed good and
desirable? The realisation of all these
desirable things is generally very difficult
and complicated. It is no easy matter to
make headway even along a smooth and
well-beaten track; but how hard must it
not be when we have to set to work to
make new roads of our own?
Such a
task is only for those members of the com-
munity who have grown perfectly mature,
and have assimilated the highest and best
that is accessible to man. To you the
ordering of life upon wholly new lines
seems but child's play, because life to you
is still a sealed book. This is the outcome
of the thoughtlessness and pride of youth.
Hence it is that we sedate people, older in
years and wiser in knowledge, are indis-
pensable in order to moderate your fiery
6 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
outbursts, and give you the benefit of our
experience, while it is your duty to submit
to us and be guided by our riper wisdom.
Yours will be a life of activity in future
years; at present you are in a period of
growth and development. Wait till your
education is completed, finish your studies,
develop your faculties to their fullest сара-
city, stand on your own legs, form your
own convictions, and then adopt the new
life you have been sketching for us, if you
feel that you possess the needful strength.
For the present you are only expected to
obey those who are guiding you for your
own good, and you are not called upon to
remodel human life upon a new basis.'
""
The young man remained silent, and his
elders agreed that his father's advice was
sound.
"You are perfectly right," cried a middle-
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
7
aged married man, addressing his remarks
to the last speaker. "No doubt our young
friend here, utterly devoid as he is of expe-
rience, may easily go astray in his gropings
after new ways in the labyrinth of life; nor
can his resolve be seriously regarded as
steadfast. At the same time, however, we
are all agreed that the lives we are leading
run counter to the promptings of our con-
sciences, and are productive of no good
results to ourselves. Hence we cannot but
look with favour on the desire to effect a
thorough change in our manner of living.
Our young friend may, likely enough, mis-
take his own fancy for a logical conclusion
worked out by his reason; but I am no
longer a young man, and I will tell you
what I think and feel on the subject.
Following attentively the discussion that
has been going on here this evening, the
;
Away Velm
?
8
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
I
self-same thought that occurred to him
suggested itself to me. Personally, I have
not the shadow of a doubt that the life I
am leading cannot possibly confer upon me
happiness or peace of conscience. Reason
and experience alike urge this truth upon
me. What, then, am I waiting for? From
morning to night I toil and moil for my family,
with the result that both they and myself,
far from living up to the law of God, are
sinking deeper day by day in the slough
of sin. You work hard for your family, but
in the long run your family is not a whit
the better for your labour, because your
efforts are not a real benefit to it. Hence
I often ask myself, whether it would not
be much better if I were to change my life
completely, and realise the ideas which our
young friend has so clearly set before us,
taking no thought of my wife or children,
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. .9
but caring only for the soul. It is not
without reason that Paul says, 'He that is
married careth for the things that are of
the world, how he may please his wife.
He that is unmarried careth for the
things that belong to the Lord, how he
may please the Lord.'
i
Almost before the speaker could recite
this short text to the end, all the women
present, his own wife among the number,
indignantly protested.
"You should have thought of this long
before," exclaimed an elderly lady, who
had been attentively listening. "You
have made your bed and must lie on it
now. It would be a truly pretty state of
things, in which every one who found it
difficult to maintain his wife and family
might shirk his duty by merely signifying
a wish to save his soul. This is but fraud
درو
}
IO
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
and baseness. A man ought to be able to
lead a good, upright life in the bosom of
his family; to save oneself alone needs no
great art; nay, more, it is even contrary
to Christ's teaching. God commands us
to love others, and here are you wanting to
injure others for God's sake. The truth is
that a married man has certain well-defined
duties and obligations, and he should not
neglect them. It is quite a different
matter when the family is already cared
for, brought up, and all its members put
standing on their own legs. Then you
may do as you like for yourself. But
surely no one has a right to break up his
family."
To this the married man did not assent.
"It is not my purpose," he replied, "to
abandon my family. I merely contend
that it is my duty to bring up my family,
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. II
my children, in an unworldly manner, not
accustoming them to live for their own
pleasures, but, as was suggested a few
moments ago, inuring them to want, to
work, teaching them to give a helping
hand to their fellows, and, above all, to
treat all men as brothers. And to this
end it is indispensable to renounce distinc-
tion and riches."
"It is quite absurd for you to go talking
about breaking in others to the new life
while you yourself are further from it than
any of us," exclaimed his wife, with much
warmth. "You have always lived in the
lap of luxury, from your childhood upwards,
and why should you now wish to torture
your wife and children? Let them grow
up in peace and quiet, and then leave them
to undertake for themselves whatever line
of life commends itself to them; but don't
12
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
you go compelling them to embrace this
way of living or that."
To this the married man made no reply,
but an aged man sitting near him delivered
himself as follows:
"It is quite true, no doubt, that a mar-
ried man who has accustomed his wife and
children to ease and comfort should not
deprive them of it all of a sudden. There
is also great force in the argument that
once the education of the children has
been begun on certain lines, it is much
better to continue and complete it, than
breaking it off to commence something
else; especially as the children themselves,
when grown up, will not fail to choose the
way that is best for them. I am therefore
of opinion that it is difficult-nay, and sin-
ful too--for a married man to change his
life. It is quite a different matter with us
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 13
old men, whom God himself, so to say,
has commanded to do so. I may, perhaps,
be allowed to speak for myself: I live
practically without any duties or obliga-
tions whatever; I live, if the truth must be
told, solely for my belly. I eat, drink, rest
myself, and am myself disgusted and sick
of it all. Now for me it is surely high
time to abandon this wretched life, to dis-
tribute my earthly goods, and to live now,
at least, on the eve of my death, as God
ordained that Christians should live."
But even the old man found no support.
His niece was present, and his godchild,
all of whose children he had held at the
baptismal font and gratified with presents
on holidays ever since, and also his own
son. They one and all objected.
"No, no," said his son. "You have.
worked quite hard enough in your time,
14
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
and it is meet that you should now rest
and not kill yourself outright. You have
lived for sixty years with your tastes and
habits, and it is not at this time of day
that you can think of giving them up.
The outcome of any such attempt on your
part would be that you would subject
yourself to great torture with no result
whatever."
·
66
'Quite so," chimed in his niece, "and
when you are in want, you know, you will
be out of sorts and always grumbling, and
consequently will be sinning more griev-
ously than ever before. Besides, God is
merciful and pardons all sinners, not to
speak of such a dear, good uncle as your-
self."
"Yes; and why should we stir in this
matter at all?" asked another old man of
the same age as the uncle. "You and I
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT, 15
have perhaps two days more to live; why
fritter them away in making plans and
projects?"
"How extraordinary!" cried one of the
guests (he had uttered no word during the
entire discussion), "how incomprehensible !
We are all agreed that we should live in
accordance with God's law, and that we
are actually living badly, sinfully, and are
suffering in body and in soul in conse-
quence, and yet no sooner is it a question
of putting our conclusions in practice than
we discover that children should be ex-
cepted—they, forsooth, are not to be
disciplined in the new life, but educated
on the old lines. Then young men should
not go against the will of their parents,
and so instead of embracing the new ideas
should make the best of the old. Married
men, again, have no right to discipline
16
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
•
:
their wives and children, and inure them
to the new way of living-and so they,
too, should live the sinful life of the past.
As for old men, it is too late for them to
begin; they are not accustomed to the
hardships of the new life, and, besides,
they have only two or three days left to
live. It appears, therefore, that no one
should lead a good, upright, spiritual life;
the utmost people may do is to discourse
about it."
( 17 )
CHAPTER I.
IT happened in the reign of the Roman
Emperor Trajan, one hundred years after
the birth of Christ. The disciples of
Christ's disciples were still in the flesh,
and the Christians of that day held fast to
the law of the Master, as the author of the
Acts of the Apostles tells us: "And the
multitude of them that believed were of
one heart and of one soul; neither said
any of them that aught of the things which
he possessed was his own; but they had
all things common. And with great power
gave the Apostles witness of the resurrec-
tion of the Lord Jesus; and great grace
B
18
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
was upon them all. Neither were there
any among them that lacked; for as many
as were possessors of lands or houses sold
them, and brought the prices of the things
that were sold, and laid them down at the
Apostles' feet; and distribution was made
unto every man according as he had need."
In those early years of Christianity there
lived in the province of Cilicia, in the town
of Tarsus, a wealthy Syrian merchant
named Juvenal, who dealt in precious
stones. By birth he belonged to the
poorest and lowest class of the community;
but by dint of hard work, and by the skill
he acquired in his calling, he accumulated
considerable riches, and won the respect of
his fellow-citizens. He had travelled much
in various lands, and, although he pos-
sessed no claim to be regarded as learned
or educated, he had seen and assimilated
''
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 19
much, and his fellow-burghers held him
in high esteem for his sound intellect and
keen sense of justice. He professed the
faith of Pagan Rome, the religion to which
all respectable citizens of the Roman Empire
belonged, and whose forms and ceremonies
began to be strictly enforced in the reign
of the Emperor Augustus, and were still
rigidly observed by the Emperor Trajan.
The province of Cilicia is at a consider-
able distance from Rome; but it was ruled
by a Roman Governor, and the effects of
every wave of progress and retrogression
that passed over Rome were distinctly felt
in Cilicia, whose Governors were ever eager
to imitate their Emperor.
Juvenal had a vivid recollection of the
stories he had heard when a lad of Nero's
life and death; it was within his own
memory how Emperor after Emperor had
¿
20 IVORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
come to an untimely end, and, like a
shrewd observer, he perceived that there
was nothing sacred either in the Imperial
power or in the Roman religion; that both
were the work of human hands. This
same native shrewdness of his served like-
wise to bring home to his mind the futility
of rising up against the Imperial authority,
and the necessity, for his own peace and
happiness, of submitting to the established
order of things. Yet for all this he was
often bewildered by the wild disorder of
the life around him, especially in Rome
itself, whither his affairs frequently took
him. And at such times he was seized
with disquieting doubts; but he regained
his wonted composure by reflecting that
his mind was too circumscribed to take in
every point of view, too undisciplined to
draw the right conclusions from such facts
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 21
as he observed. He was married, and
had had four children, three of whom died
young. His surviving son was named
Julius.
In Julius was centred all his love; he
was the object of all his tender care. It
was his special endeavour so to educate
and train up this boy as to spare him in
after life the excruciating pains which
he himself experienced from his frequent
doubts and perplexities about the problem
of life.
When Julius attained his fifteenth year,
his father confided him to the care of a
philosopher who had come to live in the
town for the purpose of taking in young
men and educating them. Into the charge
of this teacher he gave his son, and his
son's young comrade Pamphilius, the son
of a freedman of his who had died some
22
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
÷
time previously. The boys were of
the same age, both of them handsome,
manly young fellows, and good friends to
boot.
They applied themselves vigorously to
their studies and made rapid progress.
They were also, both of them, well-con-
ducted. Julius evinced a marked pre-
dilection for letters and mathematics, while
Pamphilius' taste led him to pursue the
study of philosophy.
A year before the completion of the
prescribed course of studies, Pamphilius
came into school one day and informed
the master that his widowed mother in-
tended to leave the city for good, and
settle with a few friends in the little town
of Daphne; that it would be his duty to
accompany her and make himself useful
to her; and that he must, in consequence,
-
WORK WHILE YÈ HAVE THE LİGHT. 23
withdraw from the school and bring his
studies thus abruptly to an end.
The master was sorry to lose a pupil
who reflected such credit on his teacher;
Juvenal likewise regretted the departure
of his son's bosom friend, but no one felt
his loss so keenly as Julius. But Pam-
philius remained deaf to all their entreaties
that he should spend another year at
school and finish his education. Thank-
ing his friends for the many proofs of their
affection they had given him, he bade
them good-bye and departed.
One day he
Two years whirled past. J
Julius had
completed his course of studies without
having once seen his friend.
was agreeably surprised to meet him in
the street; he asked him to his father's
house, where he examined and cross-
examined him as to where and how he
24 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
had lived since they parted. Pamphilius
told him that he was still living with his
mother in the same place.
"We are not living alone," he added.
"We have many friends with us with
whom we enjoy everything in common.'
"How do you mean in common?" asked
Julius.
"So that none of us looks upon any-
✓
thing as his own property."
'Why do you do that, may I ask?
"Because we are Christians," answered
"
11
"}
Pamphilius.
"Is it possible!" cried Julius.
Now to be a Christian in those days
meant about the same thing as being a
conspirator in these. The moment a
person was convicted of belonging to the
Christian sect he was arrested, put in
prison, tried, and if he refused to abjure
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 25
his faith, put to death. It was the con-
sciousness of all this that terrified Julius
when he learned that his comrade had
embraced the new faith. He had heard
unutterable horrors attributed to the Chris-
tians.
"I am told that Christians butcher
little children and eat them. Can it be that
you too take part in these atrocities?"
Come and see for yourself," replied
Pamphilius. "We do nothing out of the
common, we live in a simple way, striving
to do nothing bad."
"But how, pray, is it possible to get
along without looking upon anything as
your own property?"
"We support ourselves. And if we
labour in the service of our brethren, they
in turn share with us the fruits of their
toil."
26 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
"Well, but how if your brethren take
your services and give you nothing in
return?" insisted Julius.
"}
"We have no such persons among us,'
replied Pamphilius. "People of that bent
have a taste for living luxuriously, and it
is not in our community that they will
come to seek the realisation of their
desires; our living is simple, not luxurious,
nor even comfortable.”
Yes, but there exists a goodly number
of lazy, idle people who ask nothing better
than to be kept and fed for nothing."
"There certainly are such persons, and
we receive them and give them a hearty
welcome. We lately had a man of that
description—a runaway slave. At first he
led a lazy, good-for-nothing life; but he
soon turned over a new leaf, and is now an
exemplary brother."
((
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
27
((
Well, but what if he had not re-
formed?"
"There are some of that category also;
our Elder, Cyril, says that it is especially
incumbent upon us to treat such people as
dearly beloved brethren, and to let slip no
opportunity of showing them our love."
"But is it possible to love rascals?"
"It is wrong not to love your fellow-
man."
"" I
"Tell me now how you can bring your-
selves to give every one whatever it pleases
him to ask of you?" inquired Julius.
know," he added, "that if my father were
to give every one what he wants and asks
for, in a very short space of time he would
be as poor as when he came into the
world."
"I cannot say," Pamphilius made answer;
"but somehow we always have enough to
28 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
satisfy our needs. And if it should come
to pass that we have nothing to eat, or to
cover our bodies with, we ask what we lack
of others, and they do not withhold it.
That happens but very rarely, however.
For my part, I have only once had to lie
down at night without having had my
supper, and even then it was chiefly
because I was tired out that evening,
and did not feel disposed to go off to
one of the brethren and ask him for a
meal."
Well, of course I don't pretend to know
how you manage these things," observed
Julius; "but my father maintains that if he
did not look carefully after his own, and if
he were to give to all who came a-begging,
he would very soon be eaten out of house
and home, and left to die of hunger."
(6
We don't die of hunger. But you had
(6
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 29
better come and see for yourself. Not
only are we alive, and not in want, but we
have even a superfluity."
"How do you explain it ?"
"In this way. We all profess one and
the same law; but the degree of strength
we possess to observe it varies greatly, one
man being endowed with a much greater
degree of it than another. Thus one per-
son may have already attained to perfec-
tion in the good life, while another may be
still struggling with the difficulties that are
met with at the outset. High above us
all Christ stands clearly out with His life,
and it is our constant endeavour to imitate
Him. In this we place our happiness.
Some members of our community-like
the Elder Cyrill, for instance, and the
woman Pelagea-are farther advanced
than any of us; others stand close behind
"
30
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
them; others, again, are still further
behind; but we are, all of us, moving
forwards in the same direction, on the
same road.
"The pioneers are already near the law
of Christ-abnegation of self-having lost
their soul in order to find it. Men of
this type want nothing. They feel no
pity for themselves, and to fulfil Christ's
law they would gladly give the last loaf,
the last garment, to him who asks for it.
There are others-weaker souls-who
cannot as yet give up everything. They
grow faint and take pity upon themselves.
They lose their strength without their
usual food or clothing, and so they can-
not yet bring themselves to give away
everything demanded of them.
"There are others still weaker than
these persons who have only recently
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 31
****
entered upon the right road. They still
go on living as before; hoarding up many
things for their own use, and give alms
only of their superfluity. Now these
soldiers of the rearguard afford material
help and support to those who are in the
front ranks.
Moreover, it should not be lost sight
of that we are all entangled in the web of
kinship with Pagans. One brother has a
father still living who is an idolater; he
owns an estate, and he makes an allowance
to his son. The son distributes it in alms,
and the father in due time forwards more.
Another has a Pagan mother, who com-
miserates her son and sends him help. In
another case it is the children who are
heathens, while the mother is a Christian.
The children, anxious to ensure their
mother's comfort, give her what they can
""
+
Y
32 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
1
afford, entreating her not to distribute it to
others. She accepts it out of love for them,
but forthwith gives it all away. In other
cases the wife is a Pagan and the husband
a Christian, or else the reverse.
"Thus it is that we are all inextricably
entangled. Those in front would be happy
to give away the last crust of bread, the
last rag of clothing, but they cannot; for
what seems the last is always succeeded
by another. It is in this wise that the
weak are always being strengthened in the
faith, and the same state of things explains
why it is that we are never without the
superfluous."
To which Julius made answer as fol-
lows: "If that be so, it is obvious that you
swerve considerably from the teaching of
Christ, and put seeming in the place of
being. If you do not give away every-
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 33
thing, there is no difference whatever
between you and us. To my thinking, if
you once set up to be a Christian, you
should go about it in a thorough fashion,
and fulfil every iota of the law, distribut-
ing everything in alms and remaining a
beggar."
"Truly, that would be best of all,"
assented Pamphilius; "why do you not do
so?"
"I will, when you Christians set me the
example."
"Oh, we have no wish to do anything for
the sake of show. Nor should I advise
you to come over to us and leave your
own surroundings, merely for the sake of
effect. Whatever we do is undertaken in
virtue of our faith."
((
What do you mean by the expression
' in virtue of our faith'?"
с
34
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
!
"I mean that we hold that escape from
the evils of the world, from death, is to be
found only in life as Christ understood it.
As to what people will say of us, it does
not matter. We live as we do, not in
order to please people, but because we
see therein the only means of obtaining
life and happiness."
"It is impossible not to live for oneself,"
objected Julius; "the gods have made it
part of our nature that we should love our-
selves more dearly than all others, and
should seek our own enjoyment. And this
is precisely what you Christians also do.
You have admitted, yourself, that the pity
which many of your brethren feel is for
themselves. They will go on gradually
seeking more and more keenly their own
pleasures, and in a corresponding degree
throwing aside the teachings of your faith;
tt
14.
"O
L
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 35
✔
and in this they will be doing just as we
do."
..
No, not so," replied Pamphilius. "Our
brethren are travelling on a different road,
and they never grow fainter and weaker,
but continually stronger; just as fire never
goes out as long as fuel continues to be
heaped upon it. Such is the force of
faith."
"Still I fail to see in what this faith
consists."
"Our faith consists in this, that we un-
derstand life as Christ interpreted it for us.'
"And that is?"
"Christ once related the following par-
able: Certain husbandmen cultivated a
vineyard planted by a householder, for
which they were bound to give him of the
fruit. We who live in the world are these
husbandmen, and we are bound to pay
:
36
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
tribute to God, to fulfil His will. But the
people who lived and believed with the
world imagined that the vineyard was
theirs; that they had nothing to pay for it,
but might enjoy the fruits it brought forth
without more ado. And the lord of the
vineyard sent a servant to collect the
tribute, but they drove him away. He
then despatched his son, but they killed
him, thinking that after this no one would
ever again interfere with them. Now this
is the world's faith, by which all worldlings
regulate their lives, ignoring the fact that
life is given to be spent in God. Christ
taught us that the faith of the world—viz.,
that it will be better for a man if he drives
the lord's servant and his son out of his
garden and refuses to pay tribute-is false,
because every man must either pay tribute,
or be ejected from the vineyard. He
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
37
taught us that the things which we term
pleasures-eating, drinking, amusements,
&c.—are not, and cannot be, pleasures, if
we make them our aim in life; that they
become joys only when we place our
happiness in something different-namely,
the fulfilment of God's will. Then, and
only then, are these pleasures experienced,
as something added to and contingent
upon the performance of God's behests.
To wish to enjoy the pleasures without
being at the trouble of doing God's will,
to pluck out the flowers as it were from
among the thorns of labour, is as wise as
it would be to gather stalks and plant them
without the roots. This is our faith, and
it is in virtue of it that we refuse to go in
search of an illusion instead of the truth.
We know that the happiness of life is not
bound up with its pleasures, but lies in the
38 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
fulfilment of the will of God, without our
entertaining a thought or a hope of any
pleasure. And we live thus in consequence;
and the longer we live, the more clearly
we perceive that enjoyment and bliss
follow close upon the performance of God's
will, as the wheels of the cart follow the
shaft. Our Master said: 'Come unto me
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest.
Thus spoke Pamphilius. Julius listened
with rapt attention, and his heart was
touched by what he heard; but still he
was not quite clear as to the significance of
all that Pamphilius had been saying. One
moment he suspected his friend of attempt-
ing to deceive him; an instant later, as he
gazed steadily into his mild, truthful eyes,
he persuaded himself that Pamphilius was
deceiving himself.
"")
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 39
Pamphilius invited his friend to pay him
a visit, during which he might study the
life of their community for himself, and,
should it please him, to take up his abode
with them for the rest of his days. And
Julius promised that he would.
He promised, but he did not visit Pam-
philius; and, carried away by the whirl of
the life of a large city, he soon forgot all
about him. He seemed to have an in-
stinctive fear that the life of the Christians
might prove too attractive for him to with-
stand. He therefore pictured it to himself
as an existence in which one had to re-
nounce all the bright sides of life. And
he could not prevail upon himself to give.
them up, because in them he centred the
aim and object of his life. He blamed
and condemned the Christians, and he set
great store by this condemnation; he was
F
40
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
apprehensive lest he might some time or
other cease to condemn them, and for this
reason he availed himself of every oppor-
tunity that offered to seek for the seamy
side of Christianity. Wherever and when-
ever he came in contact with Christians
in the city, he invariably discovered some
pretext in their conduct for censuring them.
When he saw them in the market-place
selling fruit and vegetables, he would say
to himself, and sometimes to them: "You
profess to own nothing, and yet here you
are selling products for money, instead of
giving them away for nothing to whoever
wants to take them; you are deluding
yourselves, and deceiving others." And
he refused to listen to their arguments, by
which they sought to convince him that
it was necessary and just that they should
sell their products in the market, and not
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 41
give them away. Whenever he saw a
Christian wearing a good, well-made article
of clothing, he never failed to reproach
him with inconsistency for not having
given it away.
It was indispensable to
his peace of mind that Christians should
be wrong, and, as they never denied that
they were in fault, they were always guilty
in his eyes.
He looked upon them as
Pharisees, deceivers, whose force lay in
their high-flown phrases and their weak-
ness in action. And of himself, he re-
marked, by way of contrast, "I at least
profess what I practise, whereas you say
one thing and do another." And, having
persuaded himself that this was really so,
he felt quite reassured and continued to
live as before.
( 42 )
w the who
1
CHAPTER II.
By nature, Julius was gifted with a mild,
amiable disposition; but, like most young
men of his time and country, he was the
owner of slaves; whom he often punished
in a barbarous manner, either when they
neglected to carry out his commands, or
simply when he himself was out of sorts.
He was the possessor of a collection of
precious, useless curios, and rich cos-
tumes, to which he was continually making
new additions. He was also fond of
theatres and spectacles, and from his youth
upwards provided himself with mistresses;
and he often abandoned himself, in the
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 43
society of his friends, to gross excesses in
eating and drinking. In a word, his life
glided onwards smoothly and gaily—as it
seemed to him; for he could not himself
survey its course. It was made up almost
exclusively of amusements, and the number
of them was so great that he lacked even
the time to give the matter a thought.
Two years passed rapidly away in this
seemingly delightful manner, and Julius
took it for granted that all the years of life
must naturally roll by as pleasantly as
these two. But, in the nature of things,
this is an utter impossibility; for in a life
like that which Julius was leading it is
indispensable to go on continually increas-
ing and intensifying the amusements, in
order to maintain the pleasure undimin-
ished. If, in the beginning, he enjoyed
quaffing a goblet of mellow wine in the
:
44 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
company of a friend, the pleasure cloyed
after several repetitions, and he soon found
it necessary to drink two or three such
goblets of still better wine, in order to ob-
tain the same amount of enjoyment. If at
first it was pleasant to while away an hour
or two in converse with a friend, the pleasure
soon wore off; and, in order to spend that
time with an equal degree of satisfaction,
it soon became needful to substitute a
female for a male friend; and later on even
this failed of its effect, and something else
was required. In time, this new arrange-
ment likewise proved a failure; the same
friends, even though they were female
friends, became tiresome in the end, and
had to be changed. And so with all his
pas-
times and amusements: in order to make
them yield the same amount of pleasure, it
became necessary to increase and intensify
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
45
1
them, to make greater demands on the
co-operation of others; and for people who
do not happen to be rulers, there was and
is but one way of making other people
comply with one's wishes-namely, by
means of money. It was so with Julius.
He gave himself up to pleasures of the
body, and, not being a ruler, could not
command others to be subservient to his
desires, so that, to purchase their co-
operation and increase his pleasures, he
needed money.
Now Julius' father was a rich man, and
as he loved and was proud of his only
son, he opened wide his purse to gratify
his every whim, stinting him in nothing.
Julius' life, therefore, was that of rich
young men all the world over—one of
idleness, luxury, and immoral amusements,
which have always been, and will ever
46
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
remain, the same-wine, gambling, and
light, venal women.
But his pleasures continued to absorb
ever increasing sums of money, and his
sources of income frequently ran dry.
One day he asked his father for a larger
sum than usual. His father granted his
request, but reprimanded him for his pro-
digality. He knew in his heart that
he was guilty and the reproaches well
merited; but he could not bear to admit
his guilt, and so he lost his temper and
was insolent to his father, as is usually the
way with persons who know themselves
to be in fault, but are unwilling to confess
it. He received the sum he asked for and
speedily squandered it. What was still
worse, he and a drunken comrade of his
picked a quarrel with some man and killed
him. The city prefect, informed of what
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 47
had taken place, had Julius taken into
custody; but his father, after considerable
exertions, succeeded in obtaining his par-
don. During all this time, the demands
on Julius' purse, in consequence of the
troubles into which his pleasures landed
him, became greater and more frequent.
He borrowed a large sum of a comrade,
promising soon to refund it. Moreover,
his mistress selected this time of all others
to demand more presents; she had taken
a fancy to a necklace of pearls, and he
could see that if he did not humour her
caprice in the matter she would shake him
off, and give him a successor in the person
of a wealthy man who had made repeated
attempts to supplant Julius. In his straits
Julius went to his mother, told her that,
come what would, he must have the money,
and that if she could not raise the sum
48
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
needed, he would put an end to his exist-
ence.
The circumstance that he had drifted
into this embarrassing situation, he ascribed
wholly to his father; to himself he took
no share of the blame.
My father," he argued, "first accus-
tomed me to a life of luxury, and now he
turns round and grudges me the funds
necessary to maintain it. If in the be-
ginning he had given me, without any
reproaches, the sums he gave later on, I
should have been able to arrange my life
very comfortably, steering clear of im-
pecuniosity and want. But as he always
insisted on doling out his money in mites,
I never possessed enough for my needs,
and had to have dealings with usurers,
who suck me as a spider sucks a fly; and
now that I lack the wherewithal to keep
(C
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 49
up the kind of life to which I am accus-
tomed, and which alone beseems young
men of my station, I am ashamed to
meet my friends and companions, and
my father obstinately refuses to put
himself in my position and realise my
difficulties. He forgets that he, too, was
once young. Why, it is actually he whom
I have to blame for everything I am
now enduring; and if he does not give
me the sum I have asked for I will kill
myself. That's just the long and the short
of it."
His mother, who had always spoiled
her son, straightway went to her husband.
He sent for his son and bitterly re-
proached both him and his mother. Julius
made insolent replies. His father struck
him. He seized his father by the hand.
His father shouted for the slaves, and
D
50 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
ordered them to bind his son and lock
him up.
In the solitude of his room, Julius cursed
his father and his life. His own or his
father's death suggested itself to his mind
as the only issue out of his present
desperate condition.
Julius' mother suffered infinitely more
than her son. She did not pause to in-
quire who was really to blame in all this.
She was possessed by one sole sentiment
compassion for her unhappy child. She
again sought out her husband and im-
plored him to forgive the boy. Instead of
listening to what she had to urge, he re-
viled her and accused her of having de-
moralised her son. She hurled back the
reproaches, and the scene ended by her
husband beating her. Undaunted by what
had come of her
intercession with her
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 51
husband, she yielded again to her maternal
instinct, which prompted her to hurry off
to her son and beg him to ask his father's
forgiveness. In return for this sacrifice
on his part, she promised to supply him
with the sum of money he required un-
known to his father. He assented, and
she then went to her husband and im-
plored him to forgive his son. At first
he loaded mother and son with reproaches,
but at last he agreed to pardon his son
on one condition-that he would aban-
don for ever his dissolute life and marry
the daughter of a certain wealthy mer-
chant, whose consent he undertook to
obtain.
"He will receive money from me as
well as a dowry from his bride,” he added,
"and then let him begin to lead a new,
regular life. If he promises to do my will
52
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
in this matter, I forgive him. At present
I will give him nothing, and on his first
offence I will hand him over to the city
authorities."
Julius accepted the terms proposed by
his father and was set at liberty. He pro-
mised to marry as directed, and live a re-
formed life, but he had not the slightest
intention of doing either. His life at
home had become a hell to him. His
father never spoke to him, and was per-
petually upbraiding his mother on his ac-
count. His mother was continually in
tears.
The day following his release, his
mother sent for him and secretly handed
him over jewels, which she had ab-
stracted from her husband. "Here they
are,” she said, "take them away and sell
them; but not here, in some other city,
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light. 53
and do with the proceeds what you say is
necessary. I think I can answer for their
disappearance remaining undiscovered for
some days at least. But if it should leak
out, I will put the blame on one of the
slaves."
Julius' heart was greatly troubled by
these words of his mother. He was
horrified at what she had done for him,
and, without taking or touching the pre-
cious stones, he left the house. Why and
whither was he going? He knew not.
He went on and on beyond the city
boundaries, feeling the absolute necessity
of being alone and of meditating on all
that had happened to him, and on what
still awaited him. Leaving the city be-
hind him, he entered a shady grove sacred
to the goddess Diana. Making for a
solitary spot there, he gave himself up to
54 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light.
meditation. His first impulse was to pray
to the goddess and ask her for help. But
he no longer believed in the gods of the
empire, and knew that prayers to them
would prove unavailing, succour from that
quarter an impossibility. But if they could
not comfort and assist him, who could?
It appeared strange and preposterous for
him to be compelled to do his own think-
ing in this matter. Disorder and darkness
reigned in his heart. And yet there was
no other alternative. There was nothing
for it but to appeal to his own conscience,
and in the lurid light it shed he began to
scrutinise the main actions of his life. He
discovered that they were bad, and, what
he had never before suspected, foolish.
What made him torment himself so?
What impelled him to waste all the young
years of his life so wantonly? The
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 55
thoughts that these questions suggested
had little to console him and much to make
him miserable. What enhanced his suffer-
ing more than all else was the feeling
of utter loneliness that oppressed him.
Hitherto he had had a loving mother, a
father to look to; he was not without a
certain number of friends. But now he
was quite alone in the universe. No
longer loved by any one, he was a burden
to all. He had crossed every one's path
in life; had caused his mother to quarrel
with his father; had scattered to the
winds the riches that his father had
spent the labour of a lifetime in slowly
accumulating; he had become a dis-
agreeable and dangerous rival to his
friends. Was it so strange, then, if they
all longed for his death, as he supposed
they did?
56
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
Prominent among the figures that rose
up before his mind's eye during this roll-
call of past years was Pamphilius, cordially
welcoming him to the Christian community,
and bidding him leave everything and cast
in his lot with them. And the impulse to
do so grew strong upon him.
"But is my
position, then, so utterly hopeless?" he
asked himself; and, as he again conjured
up the events of recent years, his heart
sank within him at the thought that no
one loved him more. Father, mother,
friends, could not possibly cherish any
affection for him; indeed, they could not
do otherwise than desire his death. But
did he himself love any one? He felt that
he was attached to none of his friends.
They were, all of them, his rivals, and had
not a throb of pity for him now that his
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 57
میں
misfortunes were thick upon him. And
his father? he asked himself. And, look-
ing into his heart to find the answer there,
was appalled at what he saw. Not only
did he not love his father, but he actually
hated him for the restrictions, the insults,
he had put upon him. Yes, hate was the
word; he hated him, and, more than that,
he perceived clearly that to his own happi-
ness his father's death was absolutely indis-
pensable.
'Yes, this is so. And suppose I knew
that no one would ever see or hear of it,
how would I act if I had it in my power to
take his life at a single blow, and free my-
self from his tyranny?" And Julius dis-
tinctly replied to himself: "I would kill
him;
and he was horrified that it was so.
"And my mother?" he asked. "Yes, I
""
"}
58 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
pity, but do not love her. I do not care
what becomes of her; all I want is her
help.. Why, I am a wild beast!
A wild beast at bay, hounded down; and
the sole difference between myself and the
beast is that I can, if I so will it, leave
this deceitful, wicked life; I can do what
the wild beast cannot-kill myself. I
hate my father; I love no one, neither
mother nor friends-perhaps Pamphilius
alone."
And he again reverted to his friend,
calling to mind their last meeting, their
conversation, and the words of Christ cited
by Pamphilius: "Come unto me all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Can that be true?" he
asked himself. He began to stir up his
recollections of the discussion with Pam-
philius, and his memory dwelt with pre-
""
(6
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
59
dilection on the serene, fearless, and joyful
countenance of his friend, and he was filled
with a desire to see and hear him again,
and, above all, to believe what he had
been told by him. "Who am I after all?
A man in search of happiness. I sought
for it in luxury and lust, but failed to find
it there. And those who live as I have
lived will fail in like manner. They are
malicious, and are all of them suffering.
On the other hand, there is one man who
is always joyful, because he is not in search
of anything. He tells me that there are
many such as he, that all men may become
such; that I, for one, can, if I be so
minded, on condition that I carry out the
precepts given by his Master. Now, what
if all this be true? True or not true, there's
an attraction about it which I cannot with-
stand. I shall go."
60
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
And repeating this to himself, Julius
passed out of the shady grove, and, deter-
termined never again to return home,
wended his way to the village in which
the Christians lived.
[61]
CHAPTER III.
JULIUS walked on briskly, his spirits rising
in proportion as he drew nearer the village,
and the colours grew more distinct and
life-like in the picture he set before his
mind of the life led by the Christians.
Just as the sun was sinking beneath the
horizon and he was about to take a short
rest, he met a man by the wayside, reposing
and taking his evening meal.
He was a person of middle age, and, to
judge by externals, of considerable intel-
lectual culture. He was seated, and was
leisurely eating olives and bread. As soon
as he saw Julius he said with a smile:
62
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
Good-evening, young man, you have still
a long journey before you. Be seated and
rest yourself awhile." Julius thanked him
and sat down beside him.
"Whither bound, may I ask?" he
queried.
"I am going to the Christians," replied
Julius; and in answer to further questions
narrated his whole life and the mental
process which had resulted in this sudden
resolution.
66
The stranger listened attentively and in
silence, broken rarely by such questions as
seemed necessary to clear up some obscure
allusion or throw light upon some event or
opinion, the knowledge of which had been
taken for granted. Comment or opinion
he offered none. When at length Julius
brought his story to an end, he gathered
up the food that remained over after his
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 63
meal was done, adjusted his garments, and
said: "Young man, do not carry out your
design; you have wandered away from the
direct road. I know life; you do not.
Listen; I shall analyse the principal events
of your past history and your reflections
upon them; and after you have had them
presented to you in the form which they
have assumed in my mind, you can take
any course that commends itself to you as
wise. You are young, wealthy, handsome,
strong-your heart is a seething whirlpool
of raging passions. You now yearn for a
quiet retreat in which those passions shall
not disturb you, and you shall be spared
the suffering produced by their effects;
and you are willing to believe that you
will find such a haven among the Christians.
Now there is no such port of safety, dear
young friend, there or elsewhere; because
·
•
=
64
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
that which agitates and torments you is
not located in Cilicia or in Rome, but has
its abode within yourself, In the quiet of
a sequestered village those same passions
will rage within you and convulse you,
only a hundredfold more violently than
before. The fraud or mistake of the
Christians (I have no mind to judge them)
consists in their refusal to recognise human
nature. The only persons really capable
of putting Christian teachings in practice
are old men, in whom the snow and frost
of age have quenched the last embers of
human passion. A man in the flower of
his years and strength, especially a young
man like yourself, who has not yet tasted
the fruits of life and does not even know
his own mind, cannot submit to their law,
because that law is founded, not on human
nature, but on the idle imaginings of Christ
HTT
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
65
their founder. If
If you become one of them,
you will continue to suffer from the same
causes as before, only to a much greater
extent. Now, your passions lure you out
of the right road into devious paths and
byways; but having once gone astray, you
have it in your power to retrace your steps
and set yourself right; and you enjoy,
besides, the satisfaction of passions set free
-i.e., the joy of life. But living as a
Christian and curbing your passions, so to
say, by force, you will still be able to go
astray, only more frequently and irremedi-
ably than before, and you will endure over
and above the undying torment caused by
the unappeased appetites of human nature.
Let loose the pent-up water of a dam, and
it will moisten and fructify field and meadow
and refresh the beasts that are grazing
thereon; but dam it up, and it will delve.
E
66 WORK WHILE YË HAVE THE LIGHT.
into the soil and flow in a thick muddy
stream. It is even so with the human
passions. The teaching of the Christians
(with the exception of certain beliefs with
which they console and comfort themselves,
and on which I have no wish to dwell at
present), in so far as it affects their daily
life, may be summed up as follows: they
condemn violence; they disapprove of wars
and courts of justice; they refuse to recog-
nise property; they repudiate the sciences
and arts—in a word, they eschew every-
thing that tends to make life bright and
pleasant. Even this would be well, if all
men corresponded to the description which
they give of their teacher. But so far is
this from being the case, that it is an
absolute impossibility. Men are naturally
evil-minded and swayed by their passions.
It is this constant play of the passions, and
·
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
67
the clashing and struggling that results,
which hold people fast in that network of
conditions in which they live. Savages
know no restrictions, and a single individual
among them would, for the sake of glutting
his lusts, annihilate the entire world, if all
men submitted to evil as meekly as the
Christians. If the gods endowed man with
a sentiment of anger, vindictiveness, even
of malice against the malicious, we may
take it that they did so because those
sentiments were necessary to the preserva-
tion of human life.
"The Christians hold that these senti-
ments are evil, and that without them
men would be happy; there would then
be no murders, no executions, no wars.
This is true, but one might just as well
assert that it would materially contribute
to the happiness of men if they were
68 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
:
relieved of the necessity of eating and
drinking.
"There would, indeed, be no hunger nor
thirst, nor any of the calamities they pro-.
duce. But this supposition does not
change human nature one iota. And so it
is with all the other human passions:
indignation, malice, vindictiveness, even
sexual love, and love of luxury, pomp and
greatness, are likewise characteristics of
the gods; hence they are also, in a modi-
fied form, traits proper to mankind. Root
out the necessity of nourishing man, and
at the same stroke you annihilate man
himself; in like manner, demolish the
human passions, and you thereby demolish
humanity itself. The same remark holds
good of property, which the Christians, it
is alleged, refuse to recognise. Look
around you, and will find that every
you
I
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
69
*/
vineyard, every kitchen garden, every
house, every mule, has been produced
solely and alone because property existed
and was respected. Abolish the principle
of private property, and there will not be a
single vineyard planted, not a beast of
burden trained or broken in. The Chris-
tians assert that they possess no property,
but they enjoy its fruits. They say that
they have everything in common, and that
they bring in all their possessions and put
them together. But what they bring in
they have received from men who own
property. They are simply throwing dust
in people's eyes, or, on the most favour-
able supposition, are deceiving themselves.
You tell me that they work with their own
hands to support themselves; but what
they produce would not suffice to support
them if they did not lay under contribution
70
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
1
that which had been produced by other
people who recognise the rights of pro-
perty. If they did succeed in supporting
life, there would be no place in their social
system for the arts and sciences. They
deny the advantages of our arts and
sciences. And they cannot do otherwise.
The whole gist and tenor of their teaching
is calculated to lead man back to his
primitive state—to savagery, to beastliness.
They cannot enjoy the arts and sciences in
the service of humanity, and, as they are
wholly ignorant of them, they reject them.
Neither can they employ in the service of
humanity those capacities and gifts which
constitute the exclusive prerogative of man
and draw him nearer to the gods. They
will have no temples, no statues, no
theatres, no museums. They assert that
they have no need of them. The readiest
"
¿
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 71
way to avoid blushing at one's own base-
ness is to contemn nobility. Their teacher
was an ignorant deceiver, and they are not
unsuccessful in their attempts to imitate
him. Furthermore, they are impious.
They refuse to recognise the gods or
their interference in human affairs. They
acknowledge only the Father of their
teacher, whom they call their Father, and
their teacher himself, who, they say, re-
vealed to them all the secrets of life.
Their doctrine is a wretched fraud.
Weigh this well: our belief is that the
universe is maintained by the gods, and
that the gods watch over and protect man.
In order to live well, people are bound to
honour the gods, to seek truth, and think.
Hence our life is regulated, on the one
hand, by the will of the gods, and on the
other by the collective wisdom of humanity.
72
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
We live, think, and seek, and are therefore
advancing towards truth. They, on the
contrary, have no gods, nor divine will, nor
human wisdom to look to, but must make
the best of their blind faith in their cruci-
fied teacher, and in whatever he taught
them. Now, decide for yourself, which is
the more trustworthy guide: the will of
the gods and the joint untrammeled
activity of the wisdom of all humanity, or
obligatory, unreasoning faith in the sayings
of one man."
Julius was struck by these remarks of
the stranger, especially by his last ques-
tion. Not only was his resolution to
become a Christian completely shaken,
but it now seemed quite incredible that
the stress of misfortune should have driven
him to the verge of such folly. There was,
however, one other question still unsettled:
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 73
#
what was he to do now, and how was he
to set about extricating himself from the
embarrassing situation that had made him
thus desperate? And having pointed out
this difficulty, he asked the stranger for
advice.
"I was coming to that very problem,"
the stranger said. What is to be done?
The line of action you must pursue is, as
far as human wisdom is accessible to me,
perfectly clear. All your troubles have
their source in your passions. It was
passion that whirled you away and took
you so out of your road, that you have
suffered gravely in consequence.
Life's
lessons usually take this form. You
should learn them well and benefit by
them. You have experienced much, and
you now know what is sweet and what is
bitter. You run no risk of unwittingly
((
74
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
repeating the same mistakes. Profit by
your experience. What grieves and upsets
you most is your enmity with your father.
It had its origin in your position. Choose
another one and it will vanish, or at least
will no longer manifest itself in the same
acute form.
"All your sufferings are due to the
irregularity of your position. You aban-
doned yourself to the pleasures of youth.
This was natural, and therefore right.
And it continued right as long as it be-
seemed your age. But the season passed,
and yet you continued with the strength of
a man to indulge in the freaks of a youth;
and this was wrong. You are now of an
age when your will must supplement
Nature's, and you must become a man, a
citizen, and serve the commonwealth,
working for the good of all as well as your
work while YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 75
own. Your father suggests that you
should marry.
This is wise counsel.
You have passed through one stage of
life-youth-and have now entered upon
another. All our uneasiness and fears are
but so many symptoms of a period of
transition. Look the truth manfully in
the face; admit that the season of youth
is gone by, and flinging dauntlessly aside
everything that was proper to that season,
without being characteristic of manhood,
enter the new road. Marry: give up the
frivolous gaieties of youth; occupy your
mind with the interests of commerce; with
public affairs; with sciences and arts; and
not only will you be reconciled with your
father and your friends, but you will find
rest and happiness. The root of your
troubles was the abnormal, unnatural posi-
tion you occupied. You have now reached
76 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
manhood's estate, and it is your duty to
take a wife and become a nian. Hence
my chief counsel to you is: carry out your
father's wish-marry.
"If you feel that that isolation and re-
tirement which you imagine exists among
the Christians has still a charm for you; if
you are attracted to the study of philosophy
rather than to the activity of public life,
you can give loose reins to your wishes
with benefit to yourself, only on condition
that you have first studied life and learned
its inner meaning. And this you can do
only as an independent citizen and father
of a family. If, when you have reached
that point, you still feel drawn as strongly
as ever towards retirement and contempla-
tion, give yourself up to it without hesita-
tion, for it will then be a genuine predilec-
tion, and not a mere outburst of discontent,
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 77
as it clearly is at present. Then follow
whither it leads you."
The last words, more than anything
that had gone before, brought conviction
to the mind of Julius. He warmly thanked
the stranger and returned home. His
mother gave him a most cordial welcome.
His father, too, informed of his resolution
to submit to his will and marry the young
girl he had chosen for him, became recon-
ciled with his son.
(78)
CHAPTER IV.
THREE months later Julius' marriage with
the beautiful Eulalia was duly celebrated,
and the young couple took up their resi-
dence in a house of their own. Julius,
having radically changed his way of life,
took over that branch of commerce which
his father ceded to him, and began fairly
to settle down as a respectable member of
the community.
One day he drove over to a little town
not far distant, on some business connected
with his firm, and there, while lounging in
a merchant's shop, he caught sight of Pam-
philius passing by the door along with a
t
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
79
ī
girl who was unknown to him. They were
both heavily laden with grapes, which they
offered for sale. Julius, recognising his
friend, went out to him, greeted him, and
asked him in to pass an hour in quiet con-
versation.
The girl, observing Pamphilius' desire
to enter the shop with his friend, and
noticing that he hesitated to leave her
alone, at once assured him that she did
not need his services, and that she would
sit there by herself and wait for a purchaser
for the grapes.
Pamphilius thanked her, and accom-
panied Julius into the shop. Julius asked
and received permission of his friend, the
merchant, to retire with Pamphilius to an
inner apartment, where they might enjoy a
little quiet talk.
Once there, the friends began to ques-
80
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
tion each other about the ups and downs
they had met with since they had last seen
each other.
Pamphilius' life had glided smoothly on,
bringing no material change since then; he
still lived in the Christian community, was
a bachelor as before, and felt, he assured
his friend, that every year, every day, and
every hour brought him increase of happi-
ness.
Julius thereupon narrated his experi-
ences, and described how he had been on
the point of becoming a Christian, and was
already on the road to the Christian village,
when he was stopped by the stranger, who
opened his eyes to the errors of the Chris-
tians, and made him sensible of his duty to
marry; “and I acted upon his advice, and
am now a married man," he concluded.
"And are you happy now?" asked
S
"
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT,
81
~1
Pamphilius. "Have you found in mar-
riage the bliss the stranger promised
you?"
CC
Happy?" repeated Julius. "What is
the meaning of the word happy? If we
are to take it to denote the perfect
realisation of one's desires, then I am
not happy. I am conducting my business
affairs with a fair degree of success, and I
am also beginning to be respected by my
neighbours; and both these circumstances
afford me a considerable amount of satis-
faction. True, I daily come in contact
with many citizens who are much wealthier
and more widely respected than I am; but
I flatter myself that a time will come when
I shall overtake and possibly outstrip them
in both these respects. This aspect of my
life, then, is very satisfactory. With re-
spect to my marriage, to be frank with you,
F
1
•
82
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
I fear I cannot say quite as much. I will
go a step further, and confess that that
union, which was to have conferred joy and
happiness upon me, has disappointed me;
and that the pleasure I experienced from
it in the beginning has ever since been on
the wane, and that now, in lieu of married
bliss, I am face to face with misery. My
wife is handsome, intelligent, good-natured,
accomplished. At first she made me inde-
scribably happy. But at present numerous
causes of disagreement are ever crop-
ping up between us-you cannot under-
stand this, not being married yourself—
now because she seeks my caresses when
I am cold and indifferent to her, now be-
cause the rôles are changed and my
temporary indifference has passed over to
her. Love, moreover, needs the charm of
novelty to feed it. A woman much less
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
83
attractive than my wife exercises at first a
much greater fascination over me than she
does, and then again grows far more insipid
than even my wife. I have felt this more
than once.
No; honestly, I may say that
I have not found what I hoped for in mar-
riage. The philosophers, my friend, are
right; life never gives all that the soul
longs for.
I have verified the truth of this
in marriage. But the circumstance that
life withholds from us the happiness which
the human soul yearns for, is by no means
a proof that your deceitful system supplies
it," he concluded, with a laugh.
"Why deceitful?" asked Pamphilius.
"In what do you detect symptoms of
fraud?"
Your deception consists in this: that in
order to deliver mankind from the calami-
ties that are inseparable from the affairs of
((
84
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
life, you repudiate all the affairs of life, nay,
life itself. In order to spare men the pain
of disillusion, you cause them to eschew all
illusions, you repudiate-even marriage."
"We do no such thing!" protested
Pamphilius.
"If it is not marriage that you repudiate,
then it is love."
"Love!" exclaimed Pamphilius, "why
we abjure everything except love. Love
with us is the corner-stone of the whole
edifice.".
"I do not understand you, then," said
Julius. "Judging by what I have heard
from others, and I may add by your own
example for although you and I are of
the same age, you are still unmarried—I
gather that you Christians have no con-
jugal union. You do not sever the
marriage ties which you have already
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 85
contracted, but you make nɔ new ones.
You take no thought for the perpetuation
of the human race, and if the earth were
peopled with none but Christians, humanity
would soon cease to exist," exclaimed
Julius, echoing an assertion which he had
heard many times before.
"That is scarcely a fair way of stating
the facts, is it?” replied Pamphilius; "it is
true that we do not deliberately make it
our aim to perpetuate the human race, nor
do we take the matter so very much to
heart, as I have often heard it remarked
by some of your wise men. Our minds
are set at rest on the subject by our firm
belief that our Father, who vigilantly
watches over mankind, is mindful of all
their wants; it is our object to live in
accordance with His will. If He wills
it that the human race should subsist, He
86
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
will likewise find the means of perpetuat-
ing it; if not, it will inevitably come to an
end, That, however, is no care of ours,
our task is the more modest one of living
according to His will. His will is mani-
fested in us both in our own nature and in
the revelation He has vouchsafed to give
us, which
says that a man shall cleave to his
wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.
Marriage is not only not forbidden by our
laws, but is directly encouraged by our
Elders, who are learned in the law. The
main difference between your marriage and
ours consists in the revelation given to us
from on high that every lustful glance at a
woman is sinful, and the practical results
which our belief in that revelation has
produced, and which may be summed up
as follows: we and our women, instead of
leaving no means untried to dress finely
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT..
87
}
and beautify ourselves for the purpose of
kindling carnal desires in the hearts of
those who look upon us, direct all our
efforts to the stifling of all such impure
movements, so that the sentiment of love
among us, as among brothers and sisters,
should be strong enough to outweigh the
feeling of lust for one woman to which you
give the name of love."
"All that is well and good," remarked
Julius, "but surely you cannot stifle the
feeling of pleasure and love that springs
up within us when we look upon the beau-
tiful. Not to wander far afield for an
instant, I am satisfied that that pretty girl
with whom you brought the grapes, in
spite of her attire, which works wonders
in the way of hiding her charms, kindles in
your breast the sentiment of love for
woman.'
}
"}
88
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
is
I do not think that that is so," said
Pamphilius, blushing. "I never thought
of her beauty. You are the first who has
suggested such a thing. She is but a
sister to me. But to come back to what I
was saying about the difference between
marriage with you and with us; it arises,
as I was remarking, from the circumstance
that with you carnal lust, under the name
of beauty, love, service of the goddess
Venus, is deliberately provoked and main-
tained; whereas with us, on the contrary,
it is avoided, not because we hold it to be
an evil (God has created no evil)—indeed,
we esteem it a positive good-but because
it can and does become an evil, a tempta-
tion, as we call it, when not confined to its
proper place. Now we strain every nerve
to avoid this.
And that is the reason why
I am not married yet, although I know of
•
!
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
89
A
nothing to prevent me from taking a wife
to-morrow."
"And what will determine
"The will of God."
"How do you discover it?"
(6
If you never look for its manifestations
your
choice?"
you will never find them. If you are con-
tinually on the watch for them they become
visible and clear, as clear as divination by
sacrifices or by the flight of birds is to you.
As you have wise men among you who
interpret to you the will of your gods by
the light of their own knowledge and
signs they discern in the entrails of the
victim or the flight of birds, in like manner
we, too, have our wise men-Elders-who
make known to us the will of our Father,
by means of the Christ's revelation, the
promptings of their heart and the thoughts
of others, and more than anything else by
90 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
the love they cherish for their fellow-
man.
""
"All that is much too vague," objected
Julius. "Who is to tell you, for example,
when and whom you should marry? Now,
when the time came for me to marry, I
had the choice of three girls. These
possible wives were selected from among
all the others by reason of their uncommon
beauty and great wealth, and my father
consented in advance to my marriage with
any one of the three. It was from these
three that I selected my Eulalia, because
she was the prettiest and, in my eyes,
the most fascinating. All that was
quite natural. But who will guide your
choice ?"
"Before giving a direct reply to your
question," said Pamphilius, "let me first
tell you that in our religion all men are
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 91
equal in the eyes of our Father, so they
are equal in our eyes also, both in respect.
of their position and in regard to their
physical and moral qualities. It follows
from this that our choice (if I must employ
a word which for us has no meaning) is
not, and cannot be, in any way circum-
scribed. Any human being living on this
earth can become the husband or wife of a
Christian."
"That makes it all the more difficult to
fix one's choice," said Julius.
"Let me tell you what one of our Elders
remarked to me the other day on the
difference between Christian and Pagan
marriages," replied Pamphilius. "The
Pagan chooses that girl of all others who,
to his thinking, is qualified to yield him
the highest degree and greatest variety of
enjoyment. The effect of this condition is
92
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
to make him dart his eyes with lightning
rapidity from one to another, irresolute
which to choose; for what makes it the
more difficult to come to a decision is that
the enjoyment in question is an unknown
quantity veiled in the shadowy future. A
Christian, on the other hand, is not embar-
rassed by the element of personal choice,
or rather considerations of a purely per-
sonal nature occupy a secondary instead
of the foremost place. His one absorbing
care is, not by his marriage to run counter
to the will of God."
"But how is it possible to oppose God's
will by a marriage?"
"If I were to forget the Iliad,” replied
Pamphilius, "that you and I were wont to
study and read aloud together in bygone
times, there would be little to wonder at,
and nothing to censure. But if you forget
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 93
it, who live in the midst of philosophers
and poets, you cannot plead the same
justification. Now, what else is the Iliad
but the story of the transgression of the
will of God by a marriage? And Mene-
laus and Paris, and Helen and Achilles,
and Agamemnon and Chryseis, are all
elements of a description of the terrible
calamities that overtook, and do nowa-
days still overtake, people who oppose
their will to that of God in this matter of
marriage."
"In what does this opposition consist?
(6
In the fact that what a man loves in a
woman is not a fellow-creature like him-
self, but the personal enjoyment which his
union with her will bring him, and for the
purpose of procuring this pleasure he con-
tracts marriage. A Christian marriage is
not possible unless a man is inspired by
"}
94
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
love for his fellow-creatures, and the person
whom he takes for partner must, in the
first place, be the object of this brotherly
affection of man for his fellow. As it is
out of the question to build a house unless
a foundation has been laid; or to paint a
picture unless you have first prepared the
canvas or other material upon which you
propose to paint it, so carnal love can
never be lawful, reasonable, or enduring
unless it is raised upon a structure of love
and reverence of man for man. Only on
this basis is it possible to establish a wise
Christian family life."
"Still it is not, I confess, quite clear to
my mind why the marriage you term
Christian should exclude that species of
love for womankind which Paris felt."
"I do not suggest that Christian mar-
riage does not admit exclusive love for one
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 95
woman; on the contrary, it is judicious and
holy only when such love is one of its
elements. But what I should like to bring
out with a degree of clearness equal to the
importance of the point is, that real exclu-
sive love for a woman is possible only
when the more general love for all man-
kind is respected and maintained intact.
That description of exclusive love for a
woman which the poets sing and proclaim
excellent in itself, although not founded
upon the love of man for his fellows, does
not deserve the name of love. It is animal
lust, which very often loses itself in hatred.
The best proof of my thesis that what is
usually termed love-Eros-changes to
beastliness when not resting on the broad
basis of brotherly affection for all men, is
the case in which violence is employed
against the very woman whom the ravisher
96
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
professes to love, even while causing her
pain that will retain its sting as long as life
endures. Can a man be said to cherish
affection for a person whom he thus tor-
tures? Now, in Pagan marriages one
frequently finds cases of masked violence;
when a man marries a girl who either
simply does not love him in return or loves
another, and ruthlessly inflicts pain and
suffering upon her, simply that he may
appease the brutal appetite which is mis-
named love."
"I grant all that," interrupted Julius;
“but am I to take it that, if the girl does
love him, it follows that there is no injustice.
in the matter. If so, I do not see in what
respect a Christian union differs from a
Pagan marriage."
"I am not acquainted with the details of
your own marriage," replied Pamphilius;
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 97
ܐ ܨ ، ܼܵܝ
:
"but it is perfectly obvious to me that
every marriage, wherever and whenever
contracted, at the root of which lies mere
personal enjoyment, cannot but prove an
abundant source of discord, just as the
process of feeding cannot take place among
animals, or among human beings who are
but little removed from the mere animal
stage, without breeding quarrels and fights
—each one is eager to seize upon a tit-bit ;
and, as there are not enough such delicious
morsels for them all, the result is a scramble
and fight. If the quarrel does not actually
break out into active hostilities, it is none-
the less real for being latent. The weak
individual longs for the luscious morsel,
conscious though he is that his more power-
ful neighbour will never cede it to him, and,
although he discerns the impossibility of
snatching it from his rival by force, still he
G
98
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
eyes him with secret envious hatred, and
is ever ready to profit by any favourable
opportunity that offers to deprive him of it.
It is just the same with Pagan marriages—
only that the results are far worse in degree,
owing to the circumstance that the coveted
object is a human being, and so discord
and hatred are engendered between the
spouses themselves.'
"And how do you propose to compel
the intending spouses to love each other
and no one else besides? In every case
the young girl or the young man will be
found to love some one else, in which case,
according to you, marriage is impossible.
From this I clearly perceive that the people
who maintain that you Christians do not
marry at all, are quite right. This is also
the reason why you are single, and will
probably ever remain so. For how is it
"}
A
4
4
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT, 99
"
conceivable that a man who marries a girl
should have never previously inflamed the
heart of any other woman, or that a girl
should have reached the age of maturity
without having ever awakened the feeling
of love in the breast of any man? What
do you suggest that Helen should have
done?"
"Our Elder, Cyril, speaking once of this
matter, remarked that people in the Pagan
world, without spending even a passing
thought upon their duty of loving their
fellow-men, without having ever done any-
thing to educate such a feeling, are solici-
tous about one thing only: how to excite
in their own breasts a passionate love for
woman; and they leave nothing undone to
foster this passion. It is for this reason
that in their world every Helen or Helen-
like woman arouses the love of many men.
*J* N
……..♥.
100 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
The rivals fight with each other and strain
every nerve to excel each other, just like
brutes eager to win the female. And to a
greater or lesser extent their marriage is a
struggle-a form of violence. In our com-
munity we not only never think of personal
enjoyment of beauty, but we sedulously
avoid all those seductive contrivances and
artifices likely to act as temptations thereto,
which the Pagan world has raised almost
to the dignity of apotheosis. We fix our
thoughts upon the obligation we are under
to reverence and love our neighbour-
comprising in this term all men, whether
they happen to be of unsurpassing beauty
or of repulsive ugliness. We do our best
to educate that sentiment, and this is why
with us love for our fellow-men gets the
upper hand over the seductions of beauty,
conquers them, and removes all pretexts
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. IOI
for quarrels and feuds that have their source
in the relations of the sexes.
"A Christian contracts marriage only.
when his union with the woman, between
whom and himself there is a bond of
mutual affection, causes bitterness to no
one. Cyril goes even so far as to say that
a Christian will not even feel an attachment
for a woman unless he knows that his
marriage with her will not cause a feeling
of pain to any one."
"But is such a thing conceivable?"
objected Julius. "Is a man then the master
of his likes and dislikes?"
"Not if he have already given them
loose rein; but he can avoid arousing them
and arrest their development. Take as a
case in point the relations of fathers to
their daughters, mothers to their sons, bro-
thers to their sisters. A mother, daughter,
▼
102 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
or sister, how beautiful soever she may be,
is never conceived of as an object of per-
sonal enjoyment by her son, her father, or
her brother, and so the coarse animal feel-
ings are not awakened. They would be
aroused in such a case, if the man discovered
that his supposed daughter, mother, or
sister was no relation whatever; but even
then the sentiment in question would be
feeble, easily amenable to reason, and it
would cost the man but little effort to curb
or wholly suppress it. The reason why
the coarse carnal feeling would be weak is
because there would lie at its root a senti-
ment of filial, paternal, or brotherly love.
Why do you persist in doubting that it is
possible and even easy to evoke and edu-
cate in man 'exactly such a sentiment
towards all women as is actually enter-
tained towards mothers, daughters, and
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 103
sisters, and to cause the feeling of conjugal
love to flourish on this basis? As a young
man will not allow himself to cherish any-
thing like sexual affection for the young
girl whom he looked upon as his sister,
until he is perfectly satisfied that she is not
his sister, so a Christian refuses to entertain
a similar feeling for any woman whatever,
until he knows that such love for her on
his part will cause no one pain or dis-
pleasure."
"But how if two men fall in love with.
the same girl? ”
"One of them will sacrifice his love for
the happiness of the other."
"But suppose she herself loves one of
them ?"
"Then he whom she loves less will
sacrifice his love for her happiness."
"Well, but if she loves the two, and both
104
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
insist on sacrificing their sentiments, she
will not marry either, I take it?"
"In a case of that kind the Elders would
weigh the matter well, and advise the
parties to take a course that would result in
the greatest amount of happiness for all
concerned, combined with the greatest
amount of love."
"But that is not the course usually taken,
and the reason is that it is contrary to
human nature.'
"}
((
Human nature! Which human nature?
Besides being an animal, a man is, I pre-
sume, likewise a man, and if the relations
to woman which our Christian religion
advocates are not in harmony with man's
animal nature, they are in perfect accord-
ance with his rational nature. And when
he makes his reason the handmaid of his
animal nature, he falls lower in the scale of
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 105
God's creatures than the very brutes; he
descends to violence, to incest, to which no
animal sinks. But when he employs his
rational nature to curb his animal instincts,
when the latter are forced into the service
of the former, then, and only then, does
he obtain that happiness which alone is
capable of satisfying his yearnings."
་
( 106 )
CHAPTER V.
"BUT now let me hear what you have to
tell me about yourself. I noticed you in
the street with a beautiful girl, with whom,
if I may judge by appearances, you live
together in that town of yours. Now tell
me, can it be possible that you have no
desire to become her husband?"
"I have never given the subject any
serious consideration," replied Pamphilius.
"She is the daughter of a Christian widow
to whom I render what services I can, just
as others do besides myself. I serve the
mother as I do the daughter, and I love
both equally well. You wish to know
· WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 107
whether the love I feel for her is of a
nature to justify my marrying her? The
question is a painful one for me; but I will
give you a straightforward answer. The
idea has, I confess, occurred to me; but
there is a youth of my acquaintance who
also loves her, and that is why I have
never yet seriously entertained it. He,
too, is a Christian, and he loves us both
dearly, and I could not for a moment think
of doing anything that might give him
pain. So I live on without giving these
ideas any place in my thoughts. All my
desires are centred in one aim-to fulfil
the law of love-love for our fellow-men.
That is the one thing necessary. As for
wedlock, I shall marry when I am con-
vinced that it is my duty to do so."
"Those are your ideas; but the mother's
standpoint may be different. It cannot
108 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
surely be immaterial to her whether she
gets a son-in-law who is kind and indus-
trious, or one who is the reverse.
She
will be naturally desirous of having you
for such a near relation."
"By no means. It is perfectly in-
different to her; because she is well aware
that all our brethren are to the full as
willing as I am to serve her just as we are
to be useful to every other brother and
sister; and that I shall continue to do what
I can for her in exactly the same way
whether I do or do not become her son-
in-law. If the outcome of it all should be
my marriage with her daughter, I shall
welcome such a consummation with joy-
just as I should her marriage with some-
body else."
"No, no; what you are saying now is
utterly impossible. And herein lies the
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 109
most terrible thing I have observed in
you Christians—that you so completely
deceive yourselves! And in this way you
deceive others as well. That stranger
whom I told you about a few minutes ago
was right in what he asserted about you.
While listening to your glowing descrip-
tions I involuntarily succumb to the spell
of the charming life which you depict, but
when I think it carefully over, I see that
it is all deception-and a deception which
leads to savagery, to brutality, to a life
approaching that of the beasts."
"In what do you discern this savagery?"
"In the circumstance that as you work
to earn a livelihood, you have no leisure
or opportunity to devote yourselves to
science and art. Here are you, for in-
stance, attired in a ragged garment, with
rough, horny hands and feet, while your
I10
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
mate, who might well be a goddess of
beauty, is as like a slave as a freewoman
could be. You Christians have no hymns
of Apollo, no temples, no poetry, no games
-in a word, nothing of all those gifts of
the gods to man which adorn life and
make it beautiful. To grind, grind, and
grind, like slaves or oxen, merely in order
to support yourself on the coarsest of food
-what else is that but voluntary and im-
pious renunciation of the human will and
nature."
"There it is again," exclaimed Pam-
philius, "that tiresome human nature! In
what does this nature consist, pray? Is it
in torturing slaves with work beyond their
strength, in the butchering of one's brothers
or reducing them to slavery; or is it in
transforming woman from what she was
and is into an object of amusement? . . . .
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. III
:
And yet all this alone beseems human
nature. Is that the essence of human
nature, or does it not rather consist in
living in love and fellowship with all men,
and feeling oneself a member of one
universal brotherhood?
"You, too, are grievously mistaken, if you
imagine that we refuse to recognise science
and arts. We highly appreciate all the
gifts and talents with which human nature
is endowed.
"We look upon all men's inborn capacities
as means given to assist him to attain one
sole end, to the realisation of which our
whole life is devoted, and that is the fulfil-
ment of the will of God. In science and
arts we discern, not a vulgar pastime fit
only to give transient pleasure to idle
people, but serious avocations of which we
have a right to demand what we require of
112 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
all human callings-namely, that in pursuing
them, the same active love of God and of
one's fellow-man be made manifest which
permeates all the acts of a Christian. We
do not recognise as true science anything
so called which fails to help us to live
better; neither do we value art but that
which purifies our thoughts and projects,
raises up
the soul, and increases the forces
necessary to a life of labour and of love.
We lose no opportunity to develop, as far
as is possible, knowledge of this kind in
ourselves and in our children; and the
charms of such art we feel and delight in
during our leisure moments. We read and
study the writings bequeathed to us by
the wisdom of men who lived before us;
we chant songs, we paint pictures, and our
songs and our pictures comfort us, cheer us
up
in moments of sadness. Therefore it is
I
7
{
}
MM
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WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 113
that we cannot bring ourselves to approve
the way in which you Pagans apply the
arts and sciences. Your scholars employ
their natural capacities and acquired know-
ledge to invent new ways of working evil
to others; they are always busy making the
methods of war more effective, more deadly
-that is to say, they are engaged in making
murder easier; they are ever concocting
new schemes for earning money—that is,
for enriching some persons at the expense
of others. Your art is utilised for the
building and ornamentation of temples in
honour of gods in whom the most en-
lightened among you have long since ceased
to believe, but faith in whom you try to
keep alive in others, in the hope that by
means of this fraud it will be all the more
easy for you to keep them well in hand.
Your statues are raised to the strongest
H
114 WORK WHILE YË HAVE THE LIGHT.
and most cruel of your tyrants, whom no
one esteems, but all fear. In the plays
given in your theatres, criminal love is
lauded and applauded. Music among you
is degraded to the role of a means of
tickling the senses of rich gluttons, after
they have gorged themselves to satiety on
the meats and drinks of their luxurious
banquets. The highest use of which paint-
ing is put is to depict in houses of ill-fame
scenes at which no man can glance without
blushing, whose senses are not paralysed
by the fumes of wine or blunted by beastly
passion.
"No, it is not for such purposes that man
is endowed with those higher attributes
which distinguish him from the beasts of
the field. They were not given to be
turned into a plaything for the delectation
of our bodies. By consecrating our whole
✓
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 115
life to the fulfilment of God's will, we are
employing, and employing to the highest
purpose, all those nobler gifts and faculties
which we have received from God."
"Yes," Julius answered, "all that would
be sublime, if only life were possible under
such conditions. But one cannot live so.
You are only deluding yourselves. You
refuse to acknowledge our protection, but
if it were not for the Roman legions, could
you live peaceably? You enjoy the pro-
tection which you refuse to acknowledge.
Even certain members of your own com-
munity-you yourself told me-defended
themselves. You do not recognise property,
and yet you enjoy it; your brethren own
property and give it to you; you yourself
take care not to give away for nothing the
grapes you carry; you sell them, and you
will also in turn make purchases. Now all
116
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
this is a delusion. If you carried out what
you say to the letter, then I should under-
stand your position; but as it is, you are
deceiving others and yourselves to boot."
Julius waxed hot during the conversa-
tion, and gave expression to every thought
that flitted through his mind. Pamphilius
remained silent, awaiting the end. When
Julius ceased speaking, he said:
"You are in error when you say that
we enjoy without recognising the protec-
tion
you afford us. We have no need of
Roman legions, because we attach no im-
portance whatever to those things which
require to be protected by violence. Our
happiness is centred in that which needs.
no defence, and which no man can take
away from us. If material objects which
you regard as personal property pass
through our hands, it should be borne in
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 117
mind that we do not look upon them or
treat them as our own, we hand them over
to those for whose support they are neces-
sary. It is true that we sell grapes, but
not for profit; only in order to obtain the
necessaries of life for those who are in need
of them. If any one wanted to take those
grapes from us, we should give them up
without the slightest resistance. For the
same reason we have nothing to fear from
an invasion of barbarians. If they wanted
to deprive us of the products of our labour,
we should yield them up at once; if they
insisted on our working for them, this also
we should do with joy; and not only would
the barbarians have no cause to kill us, but
it would be detrimental to what they con-
sider their own interests to do so. They
would soon get to understand us, would
even grow to love us, and we should have
1
F18
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT;
1
less to suffer from them than we now have
to endure from the enlightened people in
whose midst we live and by whom we are
persecuted.
"It has been frequently urged by you and
yours that it is only in consequence of the
rights of property being respected that one
is enabled to obtain all those articles of
food and clothing with which people are
nourished and kept alive. But weigh the
matter well, and then decide for yourself
-by whom are all these necessaries of
life really produced? By whose labour are
those riches stored up and accumulated of
which
you are so proud? Is it by those
who, sitting comfortably with folded arms,
command their slaves and mercenaries to
go hither and thither-to do this and that,
and who alone possess property to enjoy ;
or is it not rather by those poor neces-
C
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
119
sitous workmen who, to earn a crust of
bread, carry out their lord's commands,
while they themselves are deprived of all
property, and scarcely receive for their
share enough to keep them alive for a
single day? And what grounds have you
for supposing that these workmen who are
so lavish of their strength and energy now,
when it is a question of executing orders
which they frequently do not even under-
stand, will give up every kind of exertion
the moment it is made possible for them
to undertake intelligible and moderate
work, the results of which will benefit
themselves and those whom they love and
pity?
"The accusations you launch against us
are mainly these that we do not com-
pletely attain the end which we have in
view, and that we actually deceive others
120 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
when we say that we do not recognise
violence, nor property, seeing that we enjoy
the results of both. Now, if we are
deceivers, it is useless to waste words
upon us; we are fit objects not for anger
or for accusation, but for scorn. And the
scorn we joyfully accept, because it is one
of our rules to contemn our own nothing-
ness. But if we sincerely and earnestly
strive to reach the end towards which we
profess to be directing all our efforts, then
your accusations would be purely unjust. If
we aspire to strive, as my brethren and
myself do, to live, in accordance with the
law laid down by our Master, without
violence or property, which is none of its
fruits, our object in doing so obviously
cannot be the attainment of material ends,
the acquisition of riches, power, honours-
for we gain none of these things thereby-
S
I
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 121
}
but something wholly different. We are
quite as keen as you Pagans are in the
search of happiness; the only difference
between us consisting in the opposite views
we take of what constitutes it. You place
it in riches, honours; we in something very
different. Our faith tells us that bliss is
to be found not in violence, but in sub-
mission; not in riches, but in giving every-
thing away. And even as the flowers
struggle upwards towards the light, so do
we move outwards towards what we see to
be our happiness. We do not carry out
everything that we should like to do for
the attainment of our happiness—that is to
say, we have not quite succeeded in casting
off every habit of violence and property.
This is true. But could it well be other-
wise? Take yourself, for instance: you
strain every nerve to obtain the prettiest
122 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
wife, to acquire the largest fortune; but
do
you, does
any one, succeed in this? If
an archer does not hit the target, will he,
because he has missed it many times in
succession, cease altogether to aim at it?
We are in exactly the same position. Our
happiness is, according to Christ's teaching,
in love; but love excludes violence, and
property which flows from violence. We
are all of us bent on seeking our happiness,
but we do not fully succeed; moreover, we
do not all set about it in precisely the same
way, nor do we all attain it to the same
extent."
66
'Yes, but why do you refuse to listen to
the accumulated wisdom of mankind, why do
you turn away from it and give ear only to
your own crucified Master? Your thral-
dom, your servile submission to him is pre-
cisely what most of all repels us in you."
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light. 123-
}
"You are again mistaken, as are all
those who imagine that while professing
the teachings which we do, we believe in
them only because the man in whom we
trust commanded us to do so. On the
contrary, all those who with their whole
soul seek for knowledge of the truth, for
communion with the Father, all who yearn
for true happiness, involuntarily, and with-
out conscious effort, find themselves travel-
ling along the same road that Christ
traversed, and, instinctively taking their
stand behind him, are soon aware that he
is leading the way. All who love God
will converge towards, and finally meet, on
this road-yourself among the number.
He is the Son of God, the mediator be-
tween God and man; it is not that we
have been told this by some one and
therefore blindly believe it, but we hold it
:::.
124 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
i
to be true because all those who seek God
find His Son before them, and only through
the Son do they understand, see, and know
God."
Julius made no reply, and they both sat
for a considerable time in unbroken silence.
"Are you happy?" he asked at length.
"I desire nothing better than what I
have and am. Nor is this all. I am
continually experiencing a feeling of per-
plexity, a dim consciousness of injustice
somewhere. Why is it that I am so
unspeakably happy?" exclaimed Pam-
philius with a smile.
"Yes," sighed Julius; "it may be that
I too should have been happy, happier than
I am, had I not met the stranger I told
you of, and had I gone over to you."
"If you think so, what is keeping you
back?'
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light. 125
How about my wife?
"You say that she has a leaning towards
Christianity; if so, she will join us along
with you.'
"True; but we have only just begun a
different kind of life; would it be wise to
break it up thus suddenly? We have
begun it now, and we had better live it out
to the end," said Julius, vividly picturing
to himself the disappointment of his father,
his mother, his friends, if he were to
become a Christian; but more vividly still
the continuous and painful effort it would
cost him to effect this revolution.
66
""
"}
At this moment the young girl,
Pamphilius' friend, accompanied by a
youth, came up to the shop-door. Pam-
philius went out to them, and the youth
told him, in the presence of Julius, that
he had been sent by Cyril to buy some
126 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
leather. The grapes were already sold, ·
and wheat purchased with the money
received. Pamphilius proposed that the
youth should return home along with
Magdalen, bringing the wheat with them,
and undertaking himself to buy the leather
and carry it home.
"It will be better for you," he urged.
No, it is better for Magdalen that you
should go with her," the youth answered,
and went away. Julius accompanied his
friend to the stores of a merchant with
whom he was acquainted, where Pamphilius
filled the sacks with wheat, handed a small
portion to Magdalen, slung his own heavy
burden over his shoulders, said good-bye
to his friend, and, walking side by side with
the young girl, left the city.
At a bend in the street, Pamphilius
looked back and smilingly nodded to Julius,
66
;
WORK WHILE YÈ HAVE THE LIGHT. 127
፡
ܫ
}
and then smiling still more joyfully, made
some remark to Magdalen as they disap-
peared from Julius' horizon.
Yes, it would indeed have been better
for me had I then gone over to the Chris-
tians," exclaimed Julius to himself. And
in his imagination arose two pictures which
kept alternating with each other: now he
beheld the robust Pamphilius, with the tall,
strong girl, carrying baskets on their heads,
their faces radiant with kindliness and joy ;
now he saw his own domestic hearth, which
he had quitted that morning, and to which
'ne would return that night-and his pam-
pered, pretty wife, whose charms had
already begun to pall upon him, decked out
in fine apparel, adorned with wristbands,
and lolling on rich carpets and soft yield-
ing cushions.
But Julius had little time for thinking
·
128 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGH:
he was accosted first by some merchants
who had come to see him, then by com-
rades, and they entered at once upon the
usual occupations, which wound up with
dinner and drinking, and at night with his
wife.
1
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จ
*
( 129 )
CHAPTER VI.
TEN years passed away; and during all
that time Julius never once came across
his friend. He thought less and less fre-
quently of their former meetings and dis-
cussions, and the impressions they had
created in his mind respecting Pamphilius
himself, and the life of the Christians
generally, grew gradually dimmer and
dimmer, till at last they seemed to have
faded away. Julius' own life ran in the
common groove. His father had died, and
he had taken over the entire business of
the firm a very complicated concern, with
its old customers, its salesmen in Africa,
I
130 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
its clerks at home, its debts to be collected
and debts to be paid. Julius was en-
grossed by affairs in spite of himself, and
gave up all his time to them. Besides,
he had the new cares of his wife to bear.
Then, again, he was elected to discharge
the duties of a civic office; and this new
occupation, flattering his self-love, delighted
him. From that time forward, in addition
to his business affairs, he turned his atten-
tion to public matters; and, being a man
of parts, and endowed with the gift of
flowing, facile speech, he began to make
his mark among his fellow-citizens, and
bade fair to rise in time to the highest
civic honours in his native place.
Those ten years had likewise wrought
considerable changes in the sphere of his
family life-changes which to him at least
were highly distasteful. He was now the
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 131.
►
father of three children, and one of the
effects of their birth was to estrange him
still more from their mother. In the first
place, his wife had lost much of her former
freshness and beauty; and, in the next
place, she had grown less solicitous about
her husband than of yore, all her tender-
ness and caresses being lavished upon her
offspring. Although the children were
confided to the care of wet nurses and dry
nurses, as was the custom of the Pagans,
Julius often found them in their mother's
apartments, or, having looked for her
there in vain, discovered her in her chil-
dren's room. For the most part Julius
looked upon his children as an irksome
burden—a source of trouble and vexation
rather than pleasure. Absorbed in private
and municipal affairs, Julius had given up
his former dissolute life; but he considered
i
132 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
that he stood in need of elegant repose
after his day's labours, and this he no
longer found in the society of his wife,
especially as her intercourse with her
female slave-a Christian-grew more and
more intimate, and she allowed herself to
be carried away by the charm of the new
doctrine to such an extent that she dis-
carded from her life all the outward gloss
and varnish of Paganism, by which Julius
set such store. Not finding in his wife's
society what he sought there, Julius culti-
vated the friendship of a woman of light
conduct, in whose company he spent those
leisure moments which remained to him
after the day's duties were discharged.
If
you had asked him whether he was happy
during those years of his life, he would
have been at a loss what to answer, so
numerous and absorbing were his occupa-
y
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
light. 133
tions. From one business matter and
pleasure he rushed rapidly onwards to
another; but not one of them was of a
nature thoroughly to satisfy his yearnings,
of not one of them could he truly say that
he desired it to last. Every serious affair
he took in hand was such that the sooner
he accomplished it, and had done with it,
the easier he felt in mind, and there was
not one of his pleasures which was not
poisoned by something or other, not one
free from the loathing that comes of satiety.
In this wise the stream of Julius' life
rolled smoothly on, till one day an untoward
event took place which nearly changed its
whole course. He was taking part in the
Olympian games, and was guiding his
chariot successfully towards the goal,
putting forth all his energies to outstrip
another chariot that was slightly ahead of
134 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
*
his, when he dashed up against it. One of
the wheels of his chariot snapped in two;
he was thrown violently out, breaking two
ribs and his right arm. The injuries he sus-
tained were very severe, but not mortal; he
was conveyed to his house, and was con-
fined to his bed for three months.
During these three months of intense
physical pain, his mind became unusually
active; he employed his enforced leisure in
meditating upon his life, which he contem-
plated from a purely objective point of
view, as if it were the life of a perfect
stranger.
And his past life appeared to him in an
unpleasant light, which was intensified by
the occurrence just then of three disagree-
able events, which occasioned him no in-
considerable pain. The first of these was
the dishonesty of an old and trusted slave,
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light. 135
who had loyally served Julius' father for
many years past, but now suddenly ab-
sconded with a heap of precious stones
which he had received in Africa for his
master's firm, thus inflicting heavy losses
on Julius, and throwing his affairs into
disorder. The second blow was the in-
constancy of his concubine, who uncere-
moniously left him, and chose another pro-
tector for herself. The third and most
painful stroke of all was the election of his
rival to the high post of director, for which
he himself was a candidate; the public
elections took place during his illness, and
he was rejected. All these reverses, Julius
was convinced, were the outcome of his
illness, which in turn resulted from his
chariot having moved just half an inch
too much to the left. Lying thus helpless
in bed, his thoughts involuntarily turned on
135 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
the trifling casualties on which his happi-
ness depended, and then dwelt on the re-
membrance of his previous misfortunes, his
attempt to become a Christian, and on
Pamphilius, whom he had not seen for ten
years. These recollections were refreshed
by the conversations he had with his wife,
who, now that he was suffering and in bed,
used to pass the greater part of her time
with him, telling him everything she had
learned from her female s'ave about
Christianity. This slave had lived for
a time in the very community in which
Pamphilius resided, and was personally
acquainted with him. Julius, on learning
this, expressed a wish to see her, and when
she drew near his couch, questioned her in
great detail concerning the life led by the
Christians, and about Pamphilius in par-
ticular.
O
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light. 137
Pamphilius, she told him, was one of
the best members of the brotherhood,
and was beloved and esteemed by all; he
was married to that same Magdalen with
whom Julius had seen him ten years be-
fore, and he was now the father of several
children, "Yes," concluded the slave,
"those who doubt that God created men
for their happiness, should pay a visit to
that community and look upon Pamphilius
and Magdalen."
Julius dismissed the slave and remained
alone, pondering upon the significance of
what he had heard. He was smitten by a
feeling of envy, whenever he compared Pam-
philius' life with his own, and he resolved
to drive such thoughts away. In order to
distract himself somewhat he took up a
Greek manuscript which his wife had left
for him to peruse, and read the following :
•
138 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
"There are two roads: leading the one
to life, the other to death. The path of
life consists in the following: in the first
place you must love God who created you,
and in the second place love your neigh-
bour as yourself; and do not unto another
that which you would not wish done to
yourself. The teaching implied in these
words may be expressed thus: Bless those
that curse you; pray for your enemies and
fast for your persecutors, for if ye love
them who love you what thank have ye,
do not the heathens do even so? Love
ye them that hate you and ye shall have
no enemies. Flee the lusts of the flesh
and the world. Whosoever shall smite
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the
other also, and thou shalt be perfect.
Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,
with him twain. If any man take away
go
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
139
thy coat, let him have thy shirt also. If
any man take what is thine, seek not to
have it back, for this thou canst not. Give
unto every one that asketh and demand
not back what once thou hast given; for
the Father willeth that his beneficent gifts
be bestowed upon all. Blessed is he who
giveth according to the commandment.
"The second sermon of the Doctrine:
Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit
adultery; thou shalt not commit fornica-
tion; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not
use enchantment; thou shalt not poison;
thou shalt not covet what belongs to thy
neighbour. Thou shalt not swear, thou
shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt
not speak ill of any one; thou shalt not
remember evil. Be not double-minded;
be not double-tongued. . . . Let not thy
word be false, nor vain, but let it be true
#
J40 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
to the deed. Be not greedy of gain, be not
rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor malicious,
nor puffed up. Do not design evil plans
against your neighbour. Do not foster
hatred towards other men, but admonish
some, pray for others, and love others
more than thou lovest thine own soul.
"My child, flee evil of every kind and
everything akin to evil. Be not angry,
because anger leads up to murder; nor
jealous, nor quarrelsome, nor hot-tempered;
for the outcome of all these is murder. Be
not lustful, my son, for lust leads up to
fornication; use not loose words in thy
conversation, for the result thereof is adul-
tery. My son, do not practise sorcery,
cast not spells, pronounce no charms, and
flee those who do such things, for they
are idolatry. My son, be not mendacious,
for lying is the road to robbery; be not
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 141
greedy of silver, nor of honours, for robbery
comes of these. Be not querulous, my
son, for this is a source of blasphemy; nor
insolent, nor evil-minded, for blasphemy is
the fruit of all these. But be meek, for
the meek shall inherit the earth. Be
patient and kindly and forgiving, and lowly
and good. Exalt not thyself, and frequent
not the proud, but converse with the just
and the humble. Whatsoever happeneth
to thee welcome as a blessing, knowing
that nothing happens against God's will.
My son, foment not divisions, but make
peace between those who have quarrelled
Open not wide thy palms to receive, nor
narrow them when giving. Do not shrink
from giving away, and, having given, mur-
mur not; for thou shalt know the good
Dispenser of rewards. Turn not away
thy face from the needy, but stand by thy
142 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
→
brother in all things; call nothing thine
own, for, if ye are sharers and co-partners
in the incorruptible, how much more in
what is perishable. Teach thy children from
their tender years to fear God. Command
not thy servants or thy slaves in anger, that
that they should not cease to fear God
who rules over you both; for He cometh
not to call people according to their looks,
but he calls those whom the spirit has pre-
pared.
"And the way of death is this: first of
all it is evil and full of curses; and there is
murder upon it and adultery, lust, forni-
cation, robbery, idolatry, sorcery, poisoning,
rapacity, false witness, hypocrisy, double
dealing, cunning, pride, malice, haughti-
ness, greed, foul language, envy, insolence,
arrogance, self-love; here are to be found
the persecutors of the just, the haters of
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
143
truth and lovers of lies, they who deny
that there will be a reward for the just,
they who hold aloof from what is right and
from the just judgment; those who are
wakeful not for righteous but for evil pur-
poses, who are strangers to meekness and
to patience; here are they who delight in
vanity and yearn for rewards, who feel no
pity for the poor, who work not for the
overworked, who know not their Creator;
the murderers of children, who shatter
God's image to pieces, who turn away from
the needy, who trample on the oppressed,
defenders of the rich, unjust judges of the
poor, sinners in all things. Be on your
guard, my children, with all such persons."
Long before he had read the manuscript
through, he felt himself in the position in
which many persons find themselves when
they read a book-that is to say, other
144 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
people's thoughts, with a sincere desire of
seeking for truth: their souls enter into
communion with those who suggested the
thoughts. He kept on reading, divining
beforehand what was to follow, and not
only assenting to the ideas put forward,
but himself, as it were, giving them ex-
pression.
There then occurred to him something
so usual, and seemingly so commonplace,
that it generally escapes our notice, and is
yet one of the most mysterious, most mo-
mentous phenomena of our lives; it con-
sists in the circumstance that a so-called
living man becomes truly alive when he
enters into communion, unites himself with
the so-called dead, living one life with
them. Julius' soul merged itself in those
of the writers of these thoughts, and after
this intimate communion he contemplated
A
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145
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
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{
himself, surveyed his own life. And he
himself, and his whole life, seemed to him
a terrible mistake. He had not lived;
but he had, by all his cares and anxieties
about life, and all the temptations he had
succumbed to, destroyed the very possi-
bility of true life.
"I do not wish to trample upon and
quench my life," he exclaimed to himself;
"I wish to live, to take the road that leads
to life.'
""
All that Pamphilius had told him in
their former conversations rose up before
him now with the vividness and force of
ten years before; and it all seemed so
clear and obvious, that he was astonished
that he could have given heed to the words
of the stranger and foregone his intention
of becoming a Christian. One piece of
advice which the stranger had given him
K
146 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
also recurred to him: "When you have
tasted life, then, if you will, go over to the
Christians."
"I have tasted life," he said to himself,
"and have found it void of attraction, void
of substance." He likewise called to mind
Pamphilius' promise that, whenever he
came to the Christians, he would be sure
of a cordial reception. 'Enough," he
exclaimed, “ I have erred and suffered long
enough; I will now leave everything and
become a Christian, and live according to
the rules laid down here." He informed
his wife of his intention; and she was de-
lighted to hear of it.
His wife was ready to follow him in all
this. The only question now was how to
set about executing his plan. What was to
be done with the children? Should they,
too, be taken and baptised or left behind
(6
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​WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
147
}
wt
with their Pagan grandmother? Would it
be advisable, would it be humane to make
them Christians and thus expose them,
after years of comfort and luxury, to all
the hardships and privations in which the
members of this sect delighted? The
female slave offered to go with them and
watch over them as Christians. But the
mother's heart would not allow her to
consent to this. She insisted on leaving
them with their grandmother. Julius' ap-
proval of this arrangement removed the
only serious obstacle in the way; and, this
satisfactorily disposed of, the remaining
preparations were at once begun by
Julius and his wife for taking the most
momentous step in their lives.
( 148 )
CHAPTER VII.
At last all the preparations were concluded
and everything finally settled, the only re-
maining difficulty being Julius' health-his
wounds had not yet healed-which com-
pelled him to put off for a few days, or it
might be weeks, the last formal act that
would sever the ties that bound him to the
religion, traditions, and ways of thinking of
his fathers, and introduce him to the new
life he had chosen. One night he fell
asleep in the same resolute mood as
usual, and on awaking next morning was
informed that a clever physician, who
chanced to be passing through the town,
*
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WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 149
}
ì
:
had expressed a desire to see him, and
undertake to restore him speedily to health
and strength. Julius was delighted, said
he would see the physician at once, and a
few moments later was exchanging saluta-
tions with the identical stranger whom he
had met and discoursed with many years
before on his way to the Christians.
Having carefully examined his wounds,
the doctor prescribed a decoction of cer-
tain simples which he promised would for-
tify his patient, and hasten his recovery.
"Shall I ever be able to work with my
hand?" Julius inquired.
"Oh, certainly. You will be able to
drive a chariot as deftly as ever you did,
and to write, too, as much as you desire."
"Yes; but I mean hard work; digging,
for instance ?"
"Well, I confess, I had not that kind of
1
150 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
work in mind," said the physician, "be-
cause a man in your position never need
take to anything of that kind."
"On the contrary, that is precisely the
kind of labour I shall be engaged in,” re-
plied Julius; and he thereupon told the
stranger how he had scrupulously acted
upon his advice and tasted life, had found
all its promises deceitful, and now, full of
disappointment and dissatisfaction, was
firmly resolved to carry out the intention
he had conceived several years before and
join the Christian community.
"Well, they must have spun a very
pretty web of charming falsehoods for you,
have enticed you into it and hold you now
nicely fastened
up, if
you, a man occupying
such a high social position, with onerous
and honourable duties and responsibilities
-especially in respect to your children—
:
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
151
▸
+
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t
K
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are unable to penetrate the mask and dis-
cern their errors.”
"Will you kindly read this?" said
Julius significantly in reply, handing him
the Greek manuscript which he had him-
self pondered over some days before, with
such wonderful results.
The physician took the scroll, and
glanced at it.
<<
I know this fraud," he exclaimed,
"the only thing that surprises me is that
a man of your intellect should so easily
fall into such a snare.'
"I confess I do not understand you.
What snare?"
"}
"The pith and essence of the whole
thing lies in one's conception of human
life; and here are these sophists and rebels
against men and gods declaring that one
way of life leads to happiness; and defin-
152
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
ing it as a kind of life organised in such a
way that all men are to be happy, that
there are to be no wars, nor executions, nor
poverty, nor immorality, nor quarrels, nor
malice. And then they go on to affirm
that all these conditions will be realised as
soon as people carry out Christ's command-
ments not to quarrel, not to commit forni-
cation, not to swear, not to do violence,
not to egg on nation to rise up against
nation. But the fact is that they are
deceiving people by taking the end for
the means. The real aim and object is to
keep from quarrelling, from swearing, from
dissoluteness, &c., and the only way of
attaining it is by employing the means
afforded by social life. Their way of pre-
senting the facts is about as natural and
logical as would be that of a teacher of
archery who should say to his pupil : You
6
÷
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 153
J.
}
will easily hit the very centre of the target
if you only let your arrow fly along in a
perfectly straight line from the bow to the
point to be hit.' The question is how to
make the arrow fly along this perfectly
straight line that is the problem, and to
re-state it is not to solve it. In archery the
question is solved by fulfilling many condi-
tions, such as having your bowstring tight,
your bow elastic, your arrow straight, &c.
It is even so with life. The best kind of
life-which will exclude or greatly lessen
quarrels, dissoluteness, murders-is also
arrived at by having your bow-string
tight—viz., wise rulers; your bow elastic—
viz., power invested in the authorities; and
your arrow straight-viz., the laws just and
impartial. They, under pretext of organ-
ising the best way of living, demolish all
that has heretofore bettered, and is still
154 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
calculated to better, human life. They
acknowledge no rulers, nor authority, nor
laws."
"But they maintain that without rulers,
authority, and laws, human existence will
be in all respects better, if only people will
fulfil the law of Christ."
Yes, but what guarantee have we that
people will fulfil his law? Absolutely
none. They say: 'You have tried life
with authorities and laws, and it has never
been anything but a failure. Try it now
without authorities and laws, and you will
soon see that it will become perfect. You
have no right to deny this, not having put
it to the test of experience.' But here the
sophistry of these impious men is manifest.
Speaking in this tone, are they a whit more
logical than the agriculturist who should
say: 'You sow the seed in the ground,
66
Y
✓
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 155
}
with earth, and yet the
harvest crop
you would
wish it to be. But my advice to you is—
sow in the sea, and the results will be far
more satisfactory. And do not attempt to
meet this thesis with a bare denial; you
have no right to do so, never having put it
to the test of experience.'
Yes, there is much truth in what you
say," answered Julius, beginning to falter in
his resolution.
and then cover it
66
up
falls far below what
"""
"Nor is this all," continued the physi-
cian; "let us suppose that what's absurd,
nay, impossible, has come to pass; that the
fundamental beliefs and practices of Chris-
tianity can in some mysterious manner be
communicated to mankind, by means, say,
of medicinal drops, and that suddenly all
men take to fulfilling Christ's teachings-
loving God and their neighbour, and obey-
156 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
Even then, I
his
ing the commandments.
submit, the way of life laid down in their
books will not stand fair criticism. There
will be no life; life will cease to exist.
Their teacher was an unmarried tramp ;
followers will be according to our supposi-
tion-what their master was, and so will
the whole world. Those who are now
alive will live on, but their children will
not, or certainly not more than one in ten
of the children who would otherwise grow
up to manhood. According to their own
doctrine, the children should and would be
all equal, parents not preferring their own
children to those of perfect strangers.
Now, how, I ask, will these children
be tended, cared for, brought up and
shielded from all the dangers with which
life bristles, when we see now that all the
passionate love which nature has planted
1
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X ¿. ↑
1.
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 157
L
J.
in the mother's breast for her own offspring
is scarcely enough to preserve children
from ruin and death. If children fall like
grass before the scythe now that the con-
ditions are most favourable to them, what
will it be when the only feeling left to
mothers will be equal pity for all children.
Whose child will a woman bring up and
educate? Who will sit up wakeful, night
after night, with the sick, foul-smelling
child, if not the mother who gave it
life? Nature provided the child with a
shield-motherly love; they tear it away,
and put nothing in its place. Who is
to teach the child, to train it, to penetrate
to its very soul, and from that centre
shape and mould it, if not its own
father? Who will ward off dangers and
suffering from it? All this is taken away
by Christianity; nay, life itself—I mean the
158 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
perpetuation of the human race is taken
away."
There, too, you are right," interrupted
ulius, who was carried away by the phy-
sician's clear, business-like, eloquent way
of putting things.
"C
'No, my friend, turn away from all these
wild ravings and live in accordance with
the dictates of reason, especially at the
present time, when such noble, momentous,
and urgent duties still weigh upon you.
To fulfil them is a point of honour. You
have lived to enter upon this your second
period of doubt, and now, if you will only
march onwards, all doubt will vanish.
Your first and most urgent obligation is to
undertake the education of your children,
whom you have hitherto sadly neglected.
Your duty towards them consists in mak-
ing them worthy servants of the common-
"
-
{
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 159
+
ļ
*AS
T
:
wealth.
The commonwealth has conferred
upon you everything you possess, and now
it is your duty in return to give the common-
wealth worthy servants in the persons of
your children. Another obligation you are
under is to serve society. Failure has em-
bittered and disappointed you; this, how-
ever, is but a passing accident. Nothing
worth having is ever acquired except at
the cost of efforts and struggles; and it is
only the hard-won victory that brings the
joy of triumph. Leave it to your wife to
amuse herself with the idle gossip of Chris-
tian writers; it is your duty to be a man
and to make men of your children. Begin
this work with the consciousness that you
are performing your duty, and all your
doubts will vanish into air, for they are but
the symptoms and results of your morbid
state. Discharge your obligations to the
160 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE light.
commonwealth by faithfully serving it,
and by training up your children to serve it;
make them independent, self-sacrificing, fit
and worthy to take your place, and, having
done so, test, if you will, the life that so
attracts you, but until then you have no
right to abandon your present work, and, if
you did forsake it, you would find nothing
but disappointment and suffering."
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( 161 )
་
CHAPTER VIII.
WHETHER it was the effect of the medicine
or of the conversation and advice, it is im-
possible to say, but Julius was soon restored
to his normal state of health again, and all
his former views of Christianity seemed to
him but as the ravings of a madman.
The physician after a short sojourn left
the city; and a few days after his departure
Julius was on his feet again, busy following
his advice and inaugurating the new life
he had outlined for him. He engaged a
teacher for his children, but he reserved to
himself the chief control of their education;
all the rest of his time he employed in the
་
L
162
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
/
conduct of public affairs, in which his
success was marked and rapid, and in a
very short space of time he had acquired
immense influence in the city.
In this way a twelvemonth passed away,
during which he was never once troubled
by thoughts about the Christians. At the
end of the year he was appointed to judge
the Christians in their town, which was
not very far off.
A representative of the Roman emperor
had come to Celicia for the purpose of
stamping out Christianity. Julius had
heard of the measures put in force against
the Christians, but, not supposing that they
concerned the community in which Pam-
philius lived, he never thought of his friend
in connection with the matter. One day,
as he was walking across the public square
on his way to his tribunal, a shabbily
1
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WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. · •
163
7
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}
is
#
dressed old man, to all appearance a
stranger, came hurrying up towards him.
This badly dressed man was Pamphilius.
Pamphilius drew near and accosted him.
"How are you, friend," he said; “I have
a very urgent and important request to
make, but I do not know whether, during
this cruel persecution of the Christians, you
care to look upon me as a friend, or whether
you are afraid to lose your position by
having dealings with me."
"I fear no man," answered Julius, "and
that you may have no misgivings on the
subject, I would ask you to come along
with me to my house. I will even let my
work stand over, in order to have a chat
with you and to render you any service in
my power. Come along. Whose child is
that?"
"That's my son."
164 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
I
"But I need not have inquired.
recognise your traits in his face. I also
recognise those blue eyes of his, and deem
it superfluous to ask who is your wife. It
cannot be any one but that beautiful girl
whom I saw with you in Tarsus many
years ago. Those are her eyes."
"Your guess is correct," answered Pam-
philius. "Shortly after you and I last
parted, she became my wife."
The two friends entered Julius' house.
Julius called his wife, confided the boy to
her care, then ushered in Pamphilius to
his own luxurious apartment, which was
at a considerable distance from the other
rooms, remarking as they entered: "Here
you can talk to your heart's content, and
nobody will ever be the wiser. You are
out of the hearing of all the world."
"Oh, it is not afraid of being overheard
I
१
•
*
1
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 165
¿
Indeed, the
I am. Quite the reverse.
request I have to make is not that the
Christians who have been arrested and
marked out for death should not be exe-
cuted, but that permission should be ac-
corded them to make a public profession
of their faith."
And Pamphilius narrated how the Chris-
tians who had been deprived of their liberty
by the authorities had sent word of their
arrest from the prisons in which they were
confined to the members of their com-
munity. Then Cyril, the Elder, aware of
Pamphilius' friendly relations with Julius,
had commissioned him to come and make
that request for the condemned Christians.
The prisoners did not ask to be par-
doned. They held it to be their mission
in life to bear witness to the truth of
Christ's teachings. This testimony they
166 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT:
could give by a long eighty years' life, or
by undergoing the pains of a cruel death.
It was quite immaterial to them in which
of these two ways they fulfilled the main
object of their existence; physical death,
which in the long run was inevitable, had
no terrors for them, and it was quite as
welcome now as fifty years hence; but they
were vehemently desirous that their lives.
should prove beneficial to their fellows, and
to make sure of this, deputed Pamphilius
to ask as a boon that their trial and execu-
tion should take place in the presence of
the people.
Julius was astonished at Pamphilius'
strange request, but promised to do every-
thing that depended on him to have it
granted.
"I have promised you my mediation,"
Julius said, “from a feeling of friendship
1
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 167
Acti
for yourself, and from a peculiar disposition
to kindliness which you always succeed in
awakening within me. At the same time,
I feel I ought to tell you that I consider
your tenets in the last degree extravagant
and mischievous. I have a right, I think,
to form a judgment upon the subject,
seeing that I speak from experience. It is
not long since I myself, in a moment of
utter dejection brought on by disappoint-
ment and disease, shared your views; and
shared them so fully that I was again on
the point of giving up everything and join-
ing your sect. I know the pivot on which
all your errors turn, the corner-stone of
the whole system, for I have myself passed
through it; it is self-love, faint-hearted-
ness and debility caused by disease. Yes,
Christianity is a creed for women, not for
men."
168
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
"But why so?"
"Because, although, on the one hand,
you acknowledge that discord and the
numerous forms of violence it engenders
are inborn in human nature; you refuse,
on the other hand, to hold aloof from these
and their fruits, and to abandon them to
others who are of a different way of
thinking; and thus, without contributing
your share to the sum of human efforts,
you are not above reaping all the advan-
tages you can have from the organisation
of the world, which you know to be
founded on violence. Is this fair? The
world has always existed through and by
means of its rulers. They take upon them-
selves the work and the responsibility of
governing; they protect us from foreign
and domestic enemies. We subjects, in
return for this, pay our rulers deference
1
+
·
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 169
}
-4
།
**
7
and homage, obey their commands, and,
when needful, assist them to serve the
State. But you Christians, instead of
putting your shoulders to the wheel, and
working for the common good as others do,
and so rising gradually higher and higher
in the obligation to treat others as your
superiors, seem to be able to consider
yourselves Cæsar's equals. Not satisfied
with this, you protest against tributes and
taxes, slavery, the law courts, executions,
and war-in a word, against all those in-
stitutions which bind men together and
keep them united. If people were to give
ear to your doctrines, society would very
quickly fall to pieces, and its members
return to their pristine savagery. Living
in a State, you preach the destruction of
the State-you, whose very existence is
dependent on that of the State. If the
>
170
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
State did not exist, you and your bre-
thren would never have been heard of;
we should all be slaves of the Scyths
or of the first savage tribes who dis-
covered us.
"You are like a tumour which destroys
the body and yet lives solely upon the
body. The living individual body struggles
with and annihilates the tumour, and we
act and cannot but act in precisely the
same way towards you. Hence, in spite
of my promise to assist you to realise your
wishes, I look upon your tenets as ex-
ceedingly pernicious and vile. Vile, be-
cause I hold that to gnaw the breast that
nourishes you is neither honourable nor
just, and this is what you are doing who
are willing to profit by the advantages
offered by the commonwealth and yet
refuse to move a finger in support of the
ܓ
↓
*
To
f
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
171
\
organisation by which it exists, and actually
endeavour to pull it to pieces."
"There would be much truth in what
you advance," replied Pamphilius, "if our
life corresponded to your description of it.
But
you have no actual experience of the
life we lead, and your notions of it are false
and misleading.
"The means of livelihood which we
make use of are readily obtainable without
recurring to any form of violence what-
ever; and man is so constituted that so
long as he is in normal health he can
obtain by the work of his hands more than
he requires for the support of his life.
Living together in common we are able by
the work of our hands to maintain our
children and old folks, our sick and infirm.
"You assert that your rulers protect
men from their foreign and domestic
172
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
enemies. But we love our enemies, and
consequently have none.
"You contend that we Christians arouse
in the breast of the slave a desire to be
Cæsar. In truth we do to the contrary;
by word and deed we preach patient
humility and work-work of what is con-
sidered the lowest kind-the work of the
common day labourer.
About affairs of State we know nothing,
understand nothing. We know but one
thing in that sphere, but that we know
thoroughly, beyond the possibility of
doubt-namely, that our happiness lies
there where the happiness of other people
is to be found, and it is there that we
always seek it. The happiness of all men
consists in their union, and their union
must be brought about, not by violence,
but by love. The violence of a highway-
""
G
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 173
man towards a wayfarer is, to our thinking,
neither more nor less abominable than the
violence employed by troops against their
prisoner, or by the judge against the con-
demned culprit, and it is impossible that
we should deliberately consent to have
hand or part in one or the other. Vio-
lence is reflected in us, but our share in
it consists not in actively applying it to
others, but in submitting to it without
protest."
Yes," interrupted Julius, "but you only
seem to be martyrs and to be ever eager
to lay down your lives for the truth. In
reality truth is not on your side; you are
proud madcaps, engaged in sapping the
foundations of social life. In words you
preach love, but it needs no very searching
analysis of the results that flow from that
love of yours to discover that it should be
66
1
174
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
called by a very different name; for the
results in question are savagery, retrogres-
sion to the primitive state of nature,
murders, robbery, violence of all kinds, &c.,
which, according to your doctrines, must
not be opposed or checked in any way."
"No; that is not so," rejoined Pam-
philius; "and if you will only consider
carefully and impartially what results from
our teaching and our living you will see,
without my pointing it out, not only that
murders, violence, and robbery do not flow
from them, but that, on the contrary,
crimes of this nature cannot be success-
fully rooted out otherwise than by employ-
ing the means we advocate. Murder, rob-
bery, and every kind of evil existed in
the world long before Christianity appeared
there, and people grappled with them in
vain, employing those very means the
L
J
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
175
L
:
efficacy of which we deny. These ex-
pedients, which all consist in meeting
violence with violence, do not, cannot
check crime, but they provoke it by arous-
ing in individuals feelings of anger and
bitterness.
"Just look at the mighty Roman Empire.
In no other country have such pains been
taken to apply the laws as in Rome. The
study and delicate adjustment of the legis-
lation to the varying wants of the people
have been raised to the rank of a special
science there. The laws are taught in the
schools, discussed in the Senate, reformed
and administered by the most gifted citi-
zens. Legal justice is regarded as one of
the noblest human achievements, and the
office of judge is held in the highest esteem.
And yet it is known to every one that there
is no city existing at the present moment
176 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
throughout the length and breadth of God's
earth which has sunk so deeply in the ooze
of debauchery and crime as Rome. Call
to mind the history of Rome, and you
will
be struck by the fact that the Roman
people were distinguished by many virtues
in remoter times, notwithstanding the cir-
cumstance that the laws then were neither
so numerous nor drawn up with such a care-
ful eye to the end in view as at the present
time. Nowadays, side by side with the
study, adjustment, and application of the
laws, we observe a steady deterioration in
the morals of the Roman people, the
number of crimes continues to increase,
and the species of criminal offences grow
more various and artificial every day.
"To grapple successfully with crimes, or
with any description of evil, is possible only
by employing the means which Christianity
F
i.
!
!
:
:
!
<
* 1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
177
I
Į
}
+
!
place within our reach-viz., love; the
Pagan weapons of vengeance, punishment,
violence are absurdly inefficacious. I am
sure that you yourself would like to see
people refraining from doing evil, not from
fear of punishment, but from a lack of
desire to do what is wrong. Surely you
would not wish mankind to resemble the
wretches confined in prison, who abstain
from committing crime only because they
are continually watched and kept in order
by their gaolers. All the preventive and
remedial laws and punishments in the
world will not root out people's propensities
to do wrong and put a desire to do right
in its place. The result can be accom-
plished only when you deal with the root
of the evil which you seek to eradicate;
and the root lies inside the individual.
And to do this is our aim and object,
M
7
178 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
whereas you confine yourself to the out-
ward manifestations of the evil. You can
never hope to reach its source, because
you do not seek for it; you do not know
where it is hidden.
"The most common and prevalent crimes,
such as murder, robbery, theft, fraud, have
their source in men's desire to increase
their stock of this world's goods, or simply
to obtain the bare necessities of life, which
for one reason or another they cannot pro-
cure in any other way. Some of these
crimes are punished by the law, although
those which are the most complicated and
wide-reaching in their effects are committed
under the protecting wing of this same law
-such, for instance, as huge commercial
frauds, and the endless ways of stripping
the
poor
of their possessions which are con-
stantly practised by the rich. Those crimes
:
އ
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 179
1
which are punished by the law are to a cer-
tain extent checked, or rather made more
difficult, and the criminals are driven, by
fear of incurring the penalty, to set to work
more prudently and cunningly than would be
otherwise necessary, devising new forms of
crime which the laws cannot punish. By
practising the teachings of the Christian
religion a man keeps clear of all such crimes
as arise either from the scramble for riches or
from the unequal distribution of wealth, great
quantities of which are accumulated in the
hands of a few. We take away all motive
for crime, for robbery and murder, solely by
refusing to take for ourselves more than
what is strictly indispensable for the sup-
port of life, and by giving up to others all
our free labour; thus it is that we never
tempt others by the sight of accumulated
wealth, for we rarely possess more than is
180
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
absolutely necessary for our day's support.
Hence, if a man who is driven to despair
by the pains of hunger, and is ready to
commit a crime in order to procure a crust
of bread, comes to us, he will find what
he is in search of, without having recourse
to crime or violence, inasmuch as we live
for the purpose of sharing our last morsel
of food, our last shred of clothes, with those
who are suffering from hunger and cold.
And the result is that one class of crimi-
nals avoids us altogether, while the others
come over to us, find salvation, abandon
their criminal life, and little by little
become useful workers, toiling like the
others for the common good of all man-
kind.
"Another category of crime consists of
those offences which are provoked by the
play of unbridled passions-of vengeance,
4
L
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
181
for instance, jealous, carnal love, anger,
hatred. Criminal acts of this species are
never prevented by laws. The individual
about to commit them is in a state of animal
irresponsibility, perfect freedom from all
moral restraints; and thus blinded and
swayed by his passion, he is utterly incapable
of gauging the effects or weighing the results
of his actions. An obstacle only serves to
fan the flame of his passion. Laws, there-
fore, are perfectly useless as instruments for
suppressing such crimes. Our method of
meeting them is efficacious. We believe
that man will never attain the satisfaction
and the aim of life by ministering to his
passions, or anywhere except within him-
self, in his own soul. We endeavour, there-
fore, to tame and curb our passions by a
life of labour and of love, developing
thereby in a corresponding degree the force
182 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
and suppleness of the spiritual principle
within us; and in proportion as our number
becomes larger, and our faith penetrates
farther and deeper among men, will the
number of such crimes become less.
"Finally, there is still another class of
crimes which have their root in a sincere
desire to help one's fellow-creatures. The
desire to alleviate the sufferings of an
entire people, for instance, impels some
men-conspirators, they are called-to kill
a tyrant, in the belief that they are thereby
benefiting the majority. The source of
such crimes is a mistaken conviction that
evil may be perpetrated, in order that good
may follow. Now, crimes of this descrip-
tion are not only not prevented or their
number lessened by the promulgation and
application of legal pains and penalties, but
they are positively provoked thereby. The
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 183
s
persons who commit offences of this kind,
although grievously mistaken in their
hopes and beliefs, are impelled to act as
they do by a noble motive-a desire to do
good to others.
Most of these men, if
sincere, are ready to lay down all they
have and are for the attainment of their
end, and they quail before no dangers or
difficulties. Hence, fear of punishment is
powerless to restrain or cause them to
hesitate. On the contrary, dangers infuse
new life and spirit into them, their suffer-
ings raise them to the dignity of martyrs,
earn for them the sympathy of most men
and stimulate many others to go and do
likewise. This is confirmed by the history
of any, of every people.
"We Christians believe that the evil will
not cease entirely until all men get to
understand the gravity of the misfortunes
184 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
it causes to themselves and to others. We
also know that a brotherhood cannot be
founded until every one of us is himself a
brother; that a brotherhood cannot be
organised without brethren. Therefore
we Christians, although we clearly perceive
the error of such conspirators, cannot but
appreciate their sincerity and self-denial,
and we draw near them and meet them on
the common ground of the positive good
which it must be admitted they possess.
"In us they recognise not foes, but people
quite as sincere and as eagerly bent on
doing good as they are themselves, and
many of them come over to us, after
having acquired the conviction that a quiet
life of toil and unceasing solicitude for the
welfare of others is incomparably more
beneficial to mankind and a more difficult
achievement than their momentary feats of
•
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 185
prowess which are stained by the blood of
human life needlessly sacrificed. And
those conspirators who in this belief join
our body, are always found among the
most active and vigorous members of our
community, both in body and in spirit.
"You have now data enough, Julius, to
decide for yourself who it is that grapples
more successfully with all kinds of crime
and contributes more efficaciously to sup-
press it we Christians, who preach and
demonstrate the joy and delight of a
spiritual life, from which no evil can arise—
we whose aims are example and love; or
your rulers and judges, who pass sentences
according to the letter of a dead law, and
finish by rescuing their victims or lashing
them into fury and driving them to the
uttermost extreme of hatred."
"As long as I keep listening to you,"
186 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
replied Julius, "I certainly seem to get the
impression that your point of view is the
correct one. But will. you explain to me,
Pamphilius, how it is that people persecute
you, hunt you down, kill you? How, in a
word, your doctrine of love can beget such
discord and strife?"
"The source of this seeming anomaly
is not in us, it is outside us. I alluded a
few moments ago to a class of crimes which
are condemned as crimes both by the State
and by us.
These crimes consist of a
form of violence which transgresses the
laws established for the time being in any
State. But besides and above these laws,
people recognise other laws which are
eternal, common to all mankind, engraved
in the hearts of all human beings. We
Christians obey these divine universal
laws, and discern in the words and life of
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 187
our teacher their fittest, clearest, and fullest
expression. This is why we have come to
condemn as a crime every form of violence
which transgresses any one of Christ's com-
mandments, in all of which we see the ex-
pression of God's law. We admit that in
order to remove, when possible, all pretext
for the manifestation of ill-will against us,
we are bound to observe the civil laws of
the country in which we reside. But
higher than all else we place the law of
God, which guides our conscience and our
reason, and we can therefore obey only
such laws of the State as are not opposed
to those of God. Let Cæsar have what
is his of right; but to God we must render
all that is God's. The crimes which we
are intent on avoiding and suppressing are
not merely transgressions against the laws
of the States in which we were born and
188
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
must live, but first and foremost every
species of violation of God's will which is
a law common to the whole human race.
Hence our struggle with crime is more
comprehensive and more profound than
yours, which is carried on by the State.
How this recognition by us of God's
will as the highest law, shocks and incenses
those who give the first place to a private
law-to the legislative measures of a State,
for instance, or, as is often the case, who
raise a custom of their class to the dignity
of a law. These individuals, unwilling or
unable to become men in the true sense
of the word, in the sense in which Christ
said that truth would make us free men,
are satisfied with the position of subjects
of this or that State or members of this or
that society, and they are naturally ani-
mated by feelings of enmity for those who
""
**
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 189
see and proclaim that man has a much.
higher destiny, a far nobler mission. Un-
able to discern, reluctant to admit, this
higher destiny for themselves, they refuse
to acknowledge it for others. Concern-
ing them Christ said: "Woe unto you,
lawyers! for ye have taken away the key
of knowledge: ye entered not in your-
selves, and them that were entering in
you hindered.' They are the originators of
that persecution against us which puzzles
you.
"We ourselves entertain feelings of enmity
for no man-not even for those who thus
pursue and persecute us, and our manner
of life inflicts no harm or loss on any one.
If people are incensed against us, if they
foster feelings of hatred towards us, the
only possible reason is that our life is a
constant rebuke to them, a condemnation
190
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
of their conduct, founded as it is upon
violence. To put an end to that enmity,
the cause of which does not lie with us, is
beyond our power, for we cannot cease to
comprehend the truth which we have
already comprehended, we
we cannot live
against our conscience and our reason.
Concerning that same hostility to us, which
our faith arouses in others, our teacher
said: Think not that I am come to bring
peace; I came not to send peace, but a
sword.' Christ felt the effects of this
hatred on his own person, and he warned
us, his followers, many times, that we too
should experience it. Me,' he said once,
'the world hateth, because I testify of it,
that the works thereof are evil.
"
<
If ye
were of the world, the world would love
his own; but because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out
of the
›
1
I
1
¡
J
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
191
world, therefore the world hateth you;
and time will come when he who kills you
will think that he doeth God service.' But,
strengthened by Christ's example, we, like
him, do not fear those that kill the body,
for they can do nothing more. Illumined
by the rays of truth, we live in its light,
and our life knows not death. Physical
suffering and death no man can escape.
A
time will come when our executioners will
also suffer in body and die, and it is horri- .
ble to think how the unfortunate, helpless
creatures will be tortured at the sight of
death, which will strip them of all that they
acquired at the cost of such arduous labour
continued throughout their lifetime. Thanks
to God that we are guaranteed against the
most frightful of all suffering; for the happi-
ness for which we yearn consists not in
immunity from bodily pain and death, but
/
GOD
1
192 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
in the preservation and development of
equanimity in all the vicissitudes of life; in
the consoling conviction that whatever
happens to us independently of our own
will, is unavoidable, and for our ultimate
good; and, above all, in the knowledge that
we are true to our conscience and our
reason---those noble lights bestowed upon
man by the source of truth. And thus we
suffer nothing from those who hate and
persecute us. It is not we, but they, who
smart from the stings of that enmity, that
hatred which, like a snake in their bosom,
they nurture in their hearts. And this is
their condemnation, that light is come into
the world, and men love darkness rather
than light, because their deeds are evil.'
There is nothing to perplex or trouble us
in all that; for truth will do its work. The
sheep hear the voice of their shepherd, and
6
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 193
:
¿
}
they follow him, because they know his
voice.
"And Christ's flock will not perish, but
will grow and thrive, attracting ever new
sheep from all parts of the world; for the
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not
tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth."
N
( 194 )
CHAPTER IX.
WHILE he was still speaking, Pamphilius'
little son rushed into the apartment, and
hugged and clasped his father. In spite of
all the coaxing and caresses he had run
away from Julius' wife, and now took
shelter in his father's embrace.
Pamphilius sighed, fondled his boy, rose
up and was about to depart; but Julius
detained him, requested him to continue
the conversation and stay for dinner.
“I am astonished, I confess," said Julius,
"that you should be married and have
children. It is a mystery to me how you
Christians can bring up your children, in
1
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 195
spite of the absence of property; how
Christian mothers can attain peace of mind,
knowing, as they do, how precarious is the
future of their offspring, and how powerless
they are to put their children beyond the
reach of want."
"In what respect are our children worse
off than yours?" asked Pamphilius.
"In this respect, that they have no
slaves to look after them, no property of
any kind to fall back upon. My wife is
very favourably disposed to Christianity, in
fact, at one time, she was firmly bent on
abandoning her present life and becoming
a Christian. That was several years ago
-I, too, was then resolved to accompany
her. But what frightened her more than
anything else was the precariousness of the
position of Christian children, the want to
which they are exposed. And I must say,
iç6 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
I could not but agree with her. That was
when I was ill and confined to my bed. I
was then thoroughly disgusted with the life
I had been leading, and had taken the
resolution to forsake it once for all and join
your community. But the apprehensions
of my wife on the one hand, and the argu-
ments of the physician who attended me
and brought me round on the other hand,
impressed me with the conviction that the
life of a Christian-at least as you under-
stand and practise it—is possible and bene-
ficial only when those who embrace it are
unmarried; but that persons with families,
mothers with children, are utterly unsuited
for it and should never think of trying it.
Furthermore, that the upshot of the life
you approve and lead, will be the cessation
of all human life-that is to say, the extinc-
tion of the race. This is a fact which there
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
197
is no getting over. And under such circum-
stances, I was, I confess, rather surprised
to see you appear with a child by your
side."
"And not one only, I may add; for I
left at home a child in arms and a girl of
three years.'
""
در
Well, will you explain how it is done?
Do what I will, I positively cannot under-
stand it. A few years ago I was, as I
remarked, on the point of forswearing my
worldly life, and embracing Christianity.
But I was the father of children, and I felt
that, however distasteful the fact might be
to me, it still remained a fact that I had no
right to sacrifice my children; and, recog-
nising this, I stayed on leading my old life
for their sakes, in order to bring them up
in the same conditions as those in which I
was educated myself."
198 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
"It is very odd," said Pamphilius, “that
you should reason so. From the same
facts we draw opposite conclusions. We
say, if
grown-up people live in a worldly
manner, this is to a certain extent excus-
able, because they are spoiled already.
But children? That is horrible! To live
with them in the world, and expose them
continually to its temptations and dangers!
'Woe unto the world because of offences!
for it must needs be that offences come;
but woe to that man by whom the offence
cometh ! These are the words of our
Master; and I make use of them for that
reason, and because they are the expression
of the truth, and not merely for the purpose
of objecting; for it is really a fact that the
necessity of living as we live results mainly
from the circumstances that there are chil-
dren in our midst, tender beings of whom
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 199
it has been said: 'Except ye become as
little children, ye shall not enter into the
kingdom of heaven.'
)"}
"But how can a Christian family contrive
to get along without definite means of sub-
sistence ?"
"Means of subsistence, according to our
belief, are of one kind, and only one kind :
work for the benefit of others inspired by
love. Your means of livelihood, on the
contrary, are violence, which can vanish as
wealth vanishes, and then nothing remains
but the labour and love of men. We start
with the idea that we should hold fast by
that which is the foundation-the basis of
everything else—increasing it when possible.
And when this is done, the family lives,
and even thrives. No," continued Pam-
philius, "if I entertained any doubts about
the truth of Christ's teaching, and if I hesi-
:
200 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
tated about putting them into practice, my
doubts and hesitations would instantly dis-
appear the moment I pictured to myself
the sad fate of the children who are brought
up in Paganism, amid the surroundings and
associations in which you grew up and are
now educating your children. No matter
what strenuous efforts we, a small band of
individuals, make to render life comfortable
and pleasant by means of palaces, slaves,
and the imported products of foreign climes,
the lives of the great mass of the people
will remain what they were, what they
must be. The only provision for these
lives remains the love of mankind and
earnest toil. We are desirous of freeing
ourselves and our friends from the pressure
of these conditions, and we get other people
to work for us, not voluntarily, out of love,
but by employing violence; and, strange to
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 201
say, the better we seem to provide for our-
selves, the more we are depriving ourselves
of the only true, natural, and enduring pro-
vision-love. The greater the power of
the ruler, the less he is loved. The same
thing holds good of that other provision-
work. The more a man shirks work, and
accustoms himself to luxury, the less capa-
ble he becomes of working, and the more
he consequently deprives himself of the
true and eternal provision. And these
conditions in which people place their chil-
dren they term making provision for them!
To test my statement, take your son and
mine, and send them to find a road, to
transmit an order, or to transact any im-
portant business, and note which of them
acquits himself more satisfactorily; or pro-
pose to confide them to a master to be
educated, and see which of them will be
(
202
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
the more willingly received. No, never
again utter those terrible words that a
Christian life is possible only for those who
are childless. On the contrary, one might
rather say that to lead the life of a Pagan
is excusable only in those who are without
children. But woe to him who offendeth
any of these little ones.'
Julius remained silent.
06
"}
"Yes," he said, after a considerable
pause, “it may be that you are right; but
their education is already begun, the very
best masters are teaching them. Let them
learn all that we know; that can surely do
them no harm. There is plenty of time
yet, both for them and for me. They will
be at liberty to embrace your faith, when
they are in the flower of their age and in
the full enjoyment of all their faculties—if
they feel so disposed. As for me, I can
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
203
do so when I have provided for my
children, set them standing on their own
feet, so to say, and have thus become
free."
(C
When you have known the truth,
you will be free," answered Pamphilius.
"Christ confers perfect liberty at once:
the world's teaching will never bestow it.
Good-bye."
And Pamphilius, with his son, departed.
The trial of the prisoners took place
in the presence of the people, and Julius
saw Pamphilius and noticed how he, along
with the other Christians, assisted in re-
moving the bodies of the martyrs. He
noticed that, but fear of offending his
superiors kept him from approaching his
friend, or inviting him to his house.
(204)
CHAPTER X.
TWELVE years more passed away. Julius'
wife died. His time was filled up with the
cares and worry inseparable from public
life, and in the pursuit of power which
now became his for a passing moment, and
now slipped away from his grasp. His
wealth was immense, and he still went on
increasing it.
His sons had meanwhile grown to man's
estate, and were leading-especially the
second one—a life of luxury and extrava-
gance. This young man had made consider-
able holes in the vessel in which his father's
riches were stored up, and they leaked out.
"
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 205
with greater rapidity than they were poured
in. A struggle was carried on between
Julius and his sons, which was in all respects
identical with that which had been waged
years before by himself and his father. It
was characterised by the same traits: bit-
terness, jealousy, hatred. Moreover, about
this time a new viceroy had been appointed,
who deprived Julius of all the marks of
Imperial favour. Julius was forsaken in
consequence by his former flatterers, and
was now in expectation of being banished.
He repaired to Rome in order to offer
explanations with a view to recover his
lost position, but he was not received,
and was commanded to return home.
On his arrival in Tarsus he found his
son banqueting with several dissolute
young men in his house. In Cilicia a
rumour had been circulated to the effect
206 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
.
that Julius was dead, and his son was joy-
fully celebrating his father's death. At
sight of this Julius, losing all control over
his passion, felled his son to the ground,
left him for dead, and withdrew to the
apartment of his late wife. In his wife's
room he found a scroll containing the
Gospel, and read therein the words:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
""
Yes," exclaimed Julius to himself,
"He has been long calling me. I did not
believe Him; was disobedient and wicked,
and the yoke I bore was heavy, the burden
I carried was evil.”
(6
(6
And for a long time Julius remained
sitting with the manuscript spread out
before him on his knees, meditating upon
his past life, and calling to mind what Pam-
philius on various occasions had told him.
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 207
At length he arose and went to his son,
whom he found on his feet, and he was
overjoyed to think that he had inflicted no
serious harm by the blow.
Without addressing a word to his son
Julius left the house, walked into the street,
and took the road that led to the Christian
community.
He journeyed on the whole day, and
when evening came he stopped at a
villager's house, where he intended to pass
the night. In the room into which he
entered there was a man stretched out on
a couch. The noise of footsteps disturbed
him, and he raised himself
up.
Julius recognised the physician.
"No," exclaimed Julius, "never again
shall you dissuade me from carrying out
my resolve. This is the third time that I
am bound for the same destination, and I
208 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
}
know that there, and there only, I shall
find peace of mind."
"Where?" asked the physician.
"Among the Christians.'
"Yes; you may possibly find peace of
mind there, but you will certainly not be
doing your duty. You lack fortitude, my
friend; misfortunes subdue you. True
philosophers never act thus. Disasters
and reverses are but the fire that tries the
gold. You have passed through the
crucible; and now that your services,
which might prove inestimable, are most
urgently needed, you are sneaking away.
It is now that you should test others and
yourself. You have acquired true wisdom,
and it is your duty to make use of it for
the good of the commonwealth. What
would become of the citizens and the State
if those who have obtained a thorough
}}
甫
​I
[
<
:
t
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 209
knowledge of men, their passions, motives,
and the conditions of their life, instead of
giving the benefit of their knowledge and
experience to the State, were to bury them
out of sight and seek repose and tran-
quillity for themselves? Your wisdom has
been gained in society, and it is your
duty to allow society to reap the benefits
of it."
But I possess no wisdom. I am a
bundle of errors. True, they are ancient,
but then antiquity does not transform
errors into wisdom; age and putridity, no
matter what proportions they may reach,
never change water into wine."
((
And having said this, Julius caught up
his mantle, quitted the room and the house,
and without resting anywhere continued
his journey.
The next evening, as the long shadows
O
210
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
had just deepened into darkness, he reached
the town of the Christians. He received
a very cordial welcome, notwithstanding
that it was not known that he was the
personal friend of Pamphilius, whom they
all loved and revered.
At table Pamphilius perceived his friend,
and with an affable smile ran up to him
and pressed him in his embrace.
"Here I am at last," exclaimed Julius.
"Tell me what I am to do; I will obey
you."
"Don't worry about that," replied Pam-
philius; "let us go together." And
Pamphilius led Julius into the house that
was prepared for strangers and wayfarers,
pointed to the couch there, and said: "You
will find out yourself in what way you may
be useful to others, as soon as you have
looked around you and grown accustomed
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THe light. 211
to our mode of life. But in order that you
may make a profitable use of your present
leisure, I will tell you what you might do
to-morrow; in our gardens the brethren
are busy gathering in the vintage; go
and give them what assistance you can.
You will easily find your place among
them."
Julius went to the vineyards next morn-
ing. The first was a young plantation
with rich clusters of grapes hanging down
on every side. The young people were
gathering them in and carrying them
away. All the work was portioned out
among them, and Julius went from one
to another anxious to discover something
to do, but he found no place for himself
there.
He penetrated further, and came into a
somewhat older plantation, where the crop
•
212
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
was considerably less. But here, too, he
failed to get an occupation; the brethren
were busy working in pairs, and required
no additional hands. He continued his
search, however, and soon found himself
in a very old vineyard. It was empty.
The vine-stocks were warped and crooked,
and, as it seemed to Julius, wholly devoid
of fruit.
"So this is what my life is," he exclaimed
to himself, as he looked around. "Had I
come hither at the first call, my life would
have been as the fruits of the first vineyard.
Had I come at the second call, it would
have been like those of the older planta-
tion; but now my life is as these useless,
weakly old vine-stocks, fit only to be thrown
into the fire."
And Julius was terrified at what he had
done, at the thought of the punishment
i
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 213
that awaited him for having wantonly
squandered his whole life.
And he became very sad, and said aloud :
"I am now fit for nothing; there is now
no work that I can do." And he did not
rise up from his place, but wept bitterly
over the criminal loss of that which he
knew he could never more bring back.
Suddenly he heard the voice of an old
man calling out to him. "Work, dear
brother," said the voice.
Looking round, Julius beheld a very old
man with snow-white hair, doubled up with
age, whose tottering feet scarcely bore up
the weight of his body. He stood beside
a vine, and was gathering the rare sweet
grapes that grew here and there upon it.
Julius went up to him.
Work, dear brother," he said; "work
is sweet." And he taught him how to
""
ļ
214
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT,
look for the very few clusters that were
still on the stalks.
Julius set to work to do as he had been
told, and having found some bunches of
grapes, took them to the old man and put
them in his basket.
And the old man said to him, "Look!
In what are these bunches inferior to those
they are gathering in the other planta-
tions? Work while ye have the light,
said our Teacher. It is the will of Him
that sent me, that whosoever seeth the
Son and believeth in Him, has life ever-
lasting, and I will raise him up on the last
day. For God did not send His Son into
the world to judge the world, but that the
world should be saved through Him. He
who believes in Him will not be judged,
and he who does not believe is judged
already, because he did not believe in the
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 215
only begotten Son of God. The judgment
consists in this, that the light came into
the world, but men loved darkness better
than the light, because their deeds are
evil, For every one that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved. But he
that doeth truth cometh to the light, that
his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God.
"You are disheartened and downcast,
because you have not done more than
you have actually accomplished. Do not
grieve, my son, for we are all children
of God, and His servants. We are all
soldiers of His army. Do you think that
He has no servants but yourself? And
suppose you had devoted yourself to His
service in the vigour of your strength, do
you imagine that you would have accom-
:
216 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
plished all that He required, that you
would have done for your fellow-men all
that is necessary, in order to bring about
His kingdom upon earth? You say that
you would have accomplished twice as
much as you can now perform, ten times as
much, a hundred times as much. If you
realised a myriad times more than all man-
kind combined, what would all this amount
to in the work of God? To nothing.
The work of God, like God himself, has
no limits, no end. God's work is within
you. Approach it, and become not a work-
man, but a son, and you will be a co-partner
of God, who is infinite, and a sharer in His
work. With God there is neither little nor
great; and in life there is neither little nor
great; there is only straight or crooked.
Enter on the straight road in life, and you
WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT. 21).
will be with God, and your work will be
neither great nor little; it will be God's
work. Remember that there is more joy
in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,
than over ninety and nine just persons.
The world's ways, and all that you have
neglected to do, have shown you your sin.
And having seen your sin, you have re-
pented. And having repented, you have
found the right road. And now that you
are on the right road, go forwards with
God, think no more of the past, of little
and of great. All living men are equal
before God. There is one God and one
life."
And Julius grew calm and composed
again-obtaining the peace of mind he had
yearned for, and he manfully set himself to
live and to work to the utmost of his power
218 WORK WHILE YE HAVE THE LIGHT.
A
for the good of his fellow-men. And he
lived thus joyfully twenty years, his soul
too full to allow him to perceive the slow
approach of physical death.
PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE,.HANSON AND CO.
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
+
MR. WM. HEINEMANN'S
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OCTOBER, 1890.
Now Ready, cr. 8vo, cloth, 6s.
THE LIFE
OF
HENRIK IBSEN,
BY
HENRIK JAEGER.
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY
CLARA BELL.
The VERSE by EDMUND GOSSE.
SHORTLY,
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BY
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THE GENTLE ART OF
MAKING ENEMIES.
AS PLEASINGLY EXEMPLIFIED IN MANY
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Carefully EXASPERATED, HAVE BEEN PRETTILY SPURRed on
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A NARRATIVE OF THE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND, 1605–1616,
WHICH RESULTED IN THE PLANTATION OF
NORTH AMERICA BY ENGLISHMEN,
DISCLOSING
THE CONTEST BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN FOR THE
POSSESSION OF THE SOIL NOW OCCUPIED BY
THE UNITED States of AMERICA.
The whole set forth through a series of Historical Manuscripts now first
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COLLECTED, ARRANGED, AND EDITED
BY ALEXANDER BROWN,
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The crucial period of English occupancy of North America was
that included between the return of Weymouth to England in July
1605, and closing with the return of Dale to England in July 1616.
This period has hitherto been most imperfectly understood, partly
because of the misrepresentations made by early authorities who have
been followed too implicitly, but chiefly because of the ignorance by
later historians, and even by early writers, of the part played by
Spain in attempting to thwart the movements of England.
No historical work for many years has attracted such attention as
is sure to be given to this. Its peculiar significance consists in the
fact that it contains so much important matter never before printed
in any language. Mr. Brown's researches, pursued through many
years and at large expense, were rewarded by the discovery, in the
secret archives of Spain, of numerous documents throwing light on
the contest in Europe for the possession of the American Continent.
These documents, with rare tracts of that period (in all 365 papers,
of which 294 are now for the first time made public), accompanied by
Bibliographical Memoranda, Notes, Maps and Plans, Portraits and
Autographs, and a Comprehensive Biographical Index, lend special
value and importance to this work.
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AND
#
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
"
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MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
In December.
In Two Volumes, Demy 8vo,
MEMORIALS
A
OF
THE DE QUINCEY FAMILY
IN LETTERS AND OTHER records here first PUBLISHED,
WITH COMMUNICATIONS FROM COLERIDGE, THE WORDS.
WORTHS, MRS. HANNAH MORE PROfessor wilSON, AND
OTHERS OF NOTE.
Edited, with Introduction, Notes, and Narrative,
BY ALEXANDER H. JAPP, LL.D., F.R.S.E.
THESE volumes include letters to De Quincey from his mother
whilst he was still at school, from his sisters Jane and Mary,
his brothers Henry and Richard, and his guardian, the Rev.
Samuel Hall. Letters also from the Marquis of Sligo, Pro-
fessor Wilson, Sir W. Hamilton, "Cyril Thornton," Hannah
More, the Brontës, Coleridge, Professor T. P. Nichol, the
Wordsworths, and many others, add to the value of the book,
and with De Quincey's own letters,' throw new light on many
points in his career, and present confirmation by documentary
evidence of the truth of some of his statements regarding
the most extraordinary incidents in his early career, some of
which have been doubted at various times.
The work will be handsomely printed, in two volumes, and
will be illustrated by various portraits of De Quincey and
members of the De Quincey family.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
Early in 1891.
In One Volume, Demy 8vo,
POSTHUMOUS WORKS
OF
THOMAS DE QUINCEY.
VOLUME I.
ADDITIONAL SUSPIRIA DE PROFUNDIS.
WITH ESSAYS,
CRITICAL, HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL,
IMAGINATive, and HUMOROUS.
Recovered from the Author's Original MSS., and Edited by
ALEXANDER H. JAPP, LL.D., F.R.S.E., &c.
IN announcing a collection of unpublished writings of De
Quincey, the publisher believes he is presenting to the public
an essential addition to every library, as without these volumes
the editions of De Quincey's works now before the public will
be incomplete. The additional Suspiria alone would justify
this claim for it, some of them being absolutely necessary to
complete the significance of the Suspiria already published. In
addition to this there are other essays, on history, speculation,
criticism, and theology, which will attract and appeal to a
varied class of readers. A collection of notes under the head-
ing Brevia are added, which will give the reader closer access
to De Quincey in his private life and thoughts than anything
that has hitherto been published. By means of these notes
the reader is, as it were, introduced to the opium-eater when
he was communing with himself by means of his pen.
The volumes will be uniform with the "Memorials"
announced on the previous page.
·
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
3
•
MR WILLIAM Heinemann's List.
In November.
In Two Volumes 8vo,
THE
Genesis of the UNITED STATES.
United States.
A NARRATIVE OF THE MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND, 1605-1616,
WHICH RESULTED IN THE PLANTATION OF
NORTH AMERICA BY ENGLISHMEN,
DISCLOSING
THE CONTEST BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN FOR THE
POSSESSION OF THE SOIL NOW OCCUPIED BY
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The whole set forth through a series of Historical Manuscripts now first
printed, together with a reissue of Rare Contemporaneous Tracts,
accompanied by Bibliographical Memoranda, Notes, Plans,
and Portraits, and a Comprehensive Biographical Index.
COLLECTED, ARRANGED, AND EDITED
BY ALEXANDER BROWN,
Member of the Virginia Historical Society and of the American His-
torical Association, Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
4
THE crucial period of English occupancy of North America was
that included between the return of Weymouth to England in July
1605, and closing with the return of Dale to England in July 1616.
This period has hitherto been most imperfectly understood, partly
because of the misrepresentations made by early authorities who have
been followed too implicitly, but chiefly because of the ignorance by
later historians, and even by early writers, of the part played by
Spain in attempting to thwart the movements of England.
No historical work for many years has attracted such attention as
is sure to be given to this. Its peculiar significance consists in the
fact that it contains so much important matter never before printed
in any language. Mr. Brown's researches, pursued through many
years and at large expense, were rewarded by the discovery, in the
secret archives of Spain, of numerous documents throwing light on
the contest in Europe for the possession of the American Continent.
These documents, with rare tracts of that period (in all 365 papers,
of which 294 are now for the first time made public), accompanied by
Bibliographical Memoranda, Notes, Maps and Plans, Portraits and
Autographs, and a Comprehensive Biographical Index, lend special
value and importance to this work.
A prospectus, with specimen pages and full description, will be sent
on application. Orders may be sent to Booksellers, or direct to the
Publisher.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
In the Press.
THE COMmplete WORKS
OF
HEINRICH
HEINE.
VOLUME I.
PICTURES OF TRAVEL.
TRANSLATED BY
CHARLES G. LELAND, F.R.L.S., M.A.,
President of the Gypsy Lore Society, &c. &c.
WITH A LIFE OF HEINE BY RICHARD GARNETT.
A WANT has long been felt and often expressed by different
writers for a complete English edition of Heine's works.
That this has never been done is the more remarkable,
because HEINE is, next to GOETHE, the most universally
popular author in Germany, and one who, although he
termed himself an unlicked Teutonic savage, wrote in a
style and manner which have made him a leading favourite
in all countries.
The first volume will be the REISEBILDER, or PICTURES
OF TRAVEL, probably the most brilliant and entertaining,
while at the same time the most instructive or thought-
inspiring work of its kind ever written; to be followed by
II., FLORENTINE NIGHTS, SCHNABELEWOPSKI, and THE
RABBI OF BACHARACH; and III., THE BOOK OF SONGS.
Other volumes will be announced later, and subscribers for
the whole series are requested to give their orders early. A
special edition will also be printed, limited to one hundred
and fifty copies, numbered, and signed by the translator
and editor.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
5
3
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
Immediately.
In One Volume, Crown 8vo, 6s.,
THE
life of Henrik Ibsen.
BY HENRIK JÆGER.
TRANSLATED BY CLARA BELL.
WITH THE VERSE DONE INTO ENGLISH FROM THE NORWEGIAN
ORIGINAL BY EDMUND GOSSE.
THIS biography has been translated from the original by Clara
Bell, with verse translations of the poetical extracts by Edmund
Gosse, It would not have been possible to find an English editor
more after Ibsen's own heart than Mr. Gosse, to whom, together
with Mr. William Archer, the Northern dramatist owes his intro-
duction into this country; and the publisher has been fortunate in
securing for this, the most complete "Life of Ibsen " yet published
in England, the assistance of a writer whose sympathy with his
original lends peculiar spirit and vigour to his English version of
the poet's lines.
The Speaker, in noticing the appearance of the biography in the
original, wrote as follows:-
6
M
"The existence of so full a biography of a man little more than
sixty years of age, and still in perfect health, is a testimony to the
regard which is felt for Ibsen in Scandinavia. This bard cannot com-
plain that he is not a prophet in his own country. Mr. Jæger is
å careful biographer, and he has arranged and subdivided his material
with a great deal of skill. This is matter for gratitude; for we expect
from him not an étude on his author, but particulars of the develop-
ment of that author's mind such as are not to be obtained elsewhere.
Ibsen has helped him with facts, letters, and notes, and has appa-
rently even revised the proofs. The poet is far too sensible to be one
of those whose vanity clamours for notice, and yet refuses to give the
information desired, trembling with the hope of flattery on the one
hand, yet anxious to be able to disclaim having prompted it on the
other. That such a book as this should be published in a poet's life-
time may surprise us: if it must be published, it is certainly proper
that the man who of all others can render it most authoritative should,
without affectation, preserve it from error. Until this volume was
published, various interesting particulars with regard to Ibsen's an
cestry were wholly unknown. It is certainly curious that his great-
grandmother was a Scotchwoman."
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
In the Press.
In 8vo.
THE SALON OF
MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF.
LETTERS AND JOURNALS.
With Drawings and Studies by the youthful Artist.
In One Volume, Crown 8vo,
A NEW PLAY.
BY HENRIK IBSEN.
In One Volume, Demy 8vo,
DENMARK:
ITS HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, LANGUAGE, LITERA-
TURE, FINE ARTS, SOCIAL LIFE, AND FINANCE.
EDITED BY
H. WEITEMEYER.
With a Coloured Map.
DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION, TO H.R.H. THE PRINCESS
OF WALES
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
7
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
Immediately.
Fourth Edition. In One Volume. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.
THE BONDMAN:
A NEW SAGA.
BY HALL CAINE,
Author of "The Deemster."
Mr. Gladstone writes "The Bondman' is a work of which
I recognise the freshness, vigour, and sustained interest no less
than its integrity of aim."
"It is impossible to deny originality and rude power to this saga,
impossible not to admire its forceful directness, and the colossal
grandeur of its leading characters.”—Times.
"Three volumes of crowded incidents."-Athenæum.
"It is a splendid novel."-Academy.
"Many of the descriptions are picturesque and powerful. . . . As
fine in their way as anything in modern literature. -Observer.
·
"It reaches a level to which fiction very rarely attains.
We
are, in fact, so loth to let such good work be degraded by the title of
'novel,' that we are almost tempted to consider its claims to rank as
a prose epic."-Speaker.
"A story which will be read, not by his contemporaries alone, but
by later generations, so long as its chief features-high emotion, deep
passion, exquisite poetry, and true pathos-have power to delight and
to touch the heart."-Liverpool Mercury.
"Is distinctly ahead of all the fictional literature of our time, and
fit to rank with the most powerful fictional writing of the past cen-
tury."-Scotsman.
"
"There has been nothing like this book in recent literature."-
Evening News and Post.
(6
•
Deserves to live as an ensample to future generations of what
the art of fiction was brought to in the nineteenth century."-White-
hall Review.
8
Strong and magical."—Sunday Times.
"It is the product of a strenuous and sustained imaginative effort
far beyond the power of an everyday story-teller."-Pall Mall Gazette.
"In none of his previous works has he approached the splendour
of idealism which flows through 'The Bondman.""-Scots Observer.
"A remarkable story, painted with vigour and brilliant effect."
Manchester Guardian.
"A striking and highly dramatic piece of fiction."-St. James's
Gazette.
"Decidedly a book to be read."—Globe.
"An absorbingly interesting story."-Star.
"The book abounds in pages of great force and beauty, and there is
a touch of almost Homeric power in its massive and grand simplicity."
-Literary World.
"Graphic, dramatic, pathetic, heroic, full of detail, crowded with
incident and inspired by a noble purpose."-Liverpool Post.
"A book of lasting interest."-Yorkshire Post.
"Vigorous in conception, vivid in style."—The Daily Graphic.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
:
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
HEINEMANN'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY.
EDITED BY EDMUND GOSSE.
*** Each Volume will have an Introduction specially
written by the Editor.
The following are in the Press.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE.
BY EMIL FRANZOS.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY MILES CORBET.
WORK WHILE YE
HAVE THE LIGHT.
A TALE OF THE EARLY CHRISTIANS.
BY COUNT LYOF TOLSTOI.
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY E. J. DILLON, Ph.D.
FANTASY.
BY MATILDA J. SERAO.
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY HENRY HARLAND AND
PAUL SYLVESTER.
UNDER THE CRESCENT.
BY MAURICE JOKAI.
TRANSLATED BY R. NISBET BAIN.
Other Volumes in preparation.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
9
MR. WILLIAM HeineMANN'S LIST.
New Works of Fiction.
In preparation.
In Three Volumes, Crown 8vo, with Illustrations.
IN THE VALLEY.
A NOVEL.
By HAROLD FREDERIC,
Author of "The Lawton Girl," "Seth's Brother's Wife," &c. &c.
IO
A NEW NOVEL.
BY OUID A.
A NEW WORK.
BY HALL CAINE.
A ROMANCE
OF THE
FUTURE OF ELECTRICITY.
By T. A. EDISON, THE GREAT INVENTOR,
AND
GEO. PARSON LATHROP.
A NEW NOVEL,
BY FLORENCE WARDEN.
A NEW NOVEL.
BY HANNAH LYNCH.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
HEINEMANN'S SCIENTIFIC HANDBOOKS.
In One Volume, Crown 8vo, Illustrated, 7s. 6d.
MANUAL OF
ASSAYING GOLD, SILVER, COPPER,
AND LEAD ORES.
BY WALTER LEE BROWN, B.Sc.
REVISED, CORRECTED, AND CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED,
WITH A CHAPTER ON
THE ASSAYING OF FUEL, ETC.
By A. B. GRIFFITHS, Ph.D., F.R.S. (Edin.), F.C.S.,
MEMBRE DE LA SOCIÉTÉ CHIMIQUE DE PARIS,
FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF THE METALLURGICAL LABORATORY, MANCHESTER
TECHNICAL SCHOOL, ETC. ETC.
This work gives full details of the assaying and valuation of ores
containing gold, silver, copper, and lead. The assaying of gold and
silver bullion, fuels, &c., and full descriptions are given of the
necessary apparatus, appliances, and re-agents, the whole being fully
illustrated by eighty-seven figures in the text.
In One Volume, Crown 8vo, Illustrated, 58.
THE PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF
GASES.
By ARTHUR L. KIMBALL,
OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY.
CONTENTS.
I. Introduction.
II. Pressure and Buoyancy.
III. Elasticity and Expansion
with heat.
IV. Gases and Vapours.
V. Air-Pumps
Vacua.
and High
VI. Diffusion and Occlusion.
VII. Thermodynamics of Gases.
VIII. Avogadro's Land and the
Kinetic Theory.
IX. Geissler Tubes and Radiant
Matter.
X. Conclusion.
In the Press.
In One Volume, Crown 8vo, Illustrated, 5s.
HEAT AS A FORM OF ENERGY.
BY PROFESSOR R. H. THURSTON,
OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON W.C.
II
MR. WILLIAM Heinemann's List.
** The Books of which the titles follow
this have been published during
the present year.
THE GENTLE ART OF MAKING ENEMIES
AS PLEASINGLY EXEMPLIFIED IN MANY INSTANÇES, WHEREIN THE
SERIOUS ONES OF THIS EARTH, CAREFULLY EXASPERATED,
HAVE BEEN PRETTILY SPURRED ON TO INDISCRETION AND
UNSEEMLINESS, WHILE OVERCOME BY AN UNDue sense oF
RIGHT.
By J. M'NEIL WHISTLER. In One Volume, pott 4to, 10s. 6d.
Also, 150 Copies on Hand-Made Paper, Numbered and
Signed by the Author, £2, 28.
Punch, June 21.-"The book in itself, in its binding, print, and
arrangement, is a work of art.”
Punch, June 28.—" A work of rare humour, a thing of beauty and
a joy for now and ever.
"".
THE PASSION PLAY AT OBERAMMERGAU,
1890. By F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., Archdeacon and
Canon of Westminster, &c. &c. In One Volume, small
4to, 2s. 6d.
Spectator.—" Among the many accounts that have been written
this
year of 'The Passion Play,' one of the most picturesque, the most
interesting, and the most reasonable, is this sketch of Archdeacon
Farrar's. This little book will be read with delight by those who
have, and by those who have not, visited Oberammergau.
• • •
""
THE GARDEN'S STORY; or, Pleasures and
Trials of an Amateur Gardener. By G. H. ELL-
WANGER. With an Introduction by the Rev. C. WOLLEY
DOD. In One Volume, 12mo, with Illustrations, 5s.
Scotsman.-"Deserves every recommendation that a pleasant-
looking page can give it; for it deals with a charming subject in a
charming manner. Mr. Ellwanger talks delightfully, with instruc-
tion but without pedantry, of the flowers, the insects, and the birds.
It will give pleasure to every reader who takes the smallest
interest in flowers, and ought to find many readers."
•
12
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
•
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
COME FORTH! By ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS
and HERBERT D. WARD. In One Volume, imperial
16mo, 7s. 6d.
Pall Mall Gazette.-"Mr. and Mrs. Ward have produced a fifth
Gospel. We have no hesitation in prophesying a wide popula-
rity for this."
• •
•
Scotsman. "Come Forth!' is the story of the raising of Lazarus,
amplified into a dramatic love-story. . . A vivid conception of the
historical nature of the Scriptural characters, an adequate knowledge
of the archæology of the subject, and a reverence for the theme, are
all unobtrusively present in the book, which, for the rest, has a high
imaginative power. So far from being dull or obviously didactic, the
story has a simple, forthright dramatic interest such as is seldom
attained except in purely imaginative fiction."
M
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS.
By
ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS and HERBERT D. WARD.
In One Volume, imperial 16mo, 7s. 6d.
The Athenæum.-"The Court of Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar,
has provided ample material for a thrilling story. There is an admir-
able description of a lion hunt, and other incidents worthy of Mr.
Rider Haggard; but the human interest grows with the story, and it
is with regret that the reader takes leave of Daniel.... The Hebrew
prince and prophet is here represented in his youth as full of personal
attractions, of great courage and physical dexterity. The purity of
his life and the stoicism of his concealed love, only heightened by
the pathetically human touch of the last scene, are sufficient reminders
that it is the man of God who walks alone and upright through the
dissolute Court of Babylon."
A MARKED MAN: Some Episodes in his
Life. By ADA CAMBRIDGE, Author of "Two Years'
Time," "A Mere Chance," &c. &c. In Three Volumes,
crown 8vo.
Morning Post." A depth of feeling, a knowledge of the human
heart, and an amount of tact that one rarely finds. Should take a
prominent place among the novels of the season.
>>
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
13
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMAnn's List.
Works of Fiction.
THE MOMENT AFTER: A Tale of the Un-
seen. By ROBERT BUCHANAN. In One Volume, crown
8vo, 10s. 6d.
Athenæum.—“ Should be read-in daylight."
Observer.—“ A clever tour de force.
Bristol Mercury.-"Written with the same poetic feeling and
power which have given a rare charm to Mr. Buchanan's previous
prose writings."
THE DOMINANT SEVENTH: A Musical Story.
BY KATE ELIZABETH CLARK. In One Volume, crown
8vo, 58.
Speaker.—“ A very romantic story.”
A VERY STRANGE FAMILY: A Novel. By
F. W. ROBINSON, Author of "Grandmother's Money,"
"Lazarus in London," &c. &c. In One Volume, crown
8vo, 3s. 6d.
CC
Glasgow Herald.- An ingeniously-devised plot, of which the
interest is kept up to the very last page. A judicious blending of
humour and pathos further helps to make the book delightful reading
from start to finish."
"}
HAUNTINGS: Fantastic Stories. By VERNON
LEE, Author of "Baldwin," "Miss Brown," &c. &c. In
One Volume, crown 8vo, 6s.
Pall Mall Gazette.—"Well imagined, cleverly constructed, power-
fully executed. 'Dionea' is a fine and impressive idea, and 'Oke of
Okehurst' a masterly story."
ciated."
C
PASSION THE PLAYTHING. A Novel.
By
R. MURRAY GILCHRIST. In One Volume, crown 8vo, 6s.
Athenæum.-"This well-written story must be read to be appre-
Yorkshire Post.-
14
-
"A book to lay hold of the reader."
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
Works of Fiction.
HEINEMANN'S INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY.
IN GOD'S WAY. By BJÖRNSTJERNE BJÖRNSON.
Translated from the Norwegian by ELIZABETH CAR-
MICHAEL. With Introduction by EDMUND GOSSE. In
One Volume, crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. ; or Paper Covers, 2s. 6d.
• •
Athenæum.-"Without doubt the most important, and the most
interesting work published during the twelve months.
There are
descriptions which certainly belong to the best and cleverest things
our literature has ever produced. Amongst the many characters, the
doctor's wife is unquestionably the first. It would be difficult to find
anything more tender, soft, and refined than this charming per-
sonage."
Saturday Review.-"The English reader could desire no better
introduction to contemporary foreign fiction than this notable novel."
Speaker.—“In God's Way' is really a notable book, showing the
author's deep insight into character, giving evidence that his hand has
lost none of its cunning in the delineation of Scandinavian character,
and proving, too, how the widespread spirit of criticism is affecting
Northern Europe as elsewhere.
Queen.-"There is a power of description displayed by the author
which lifts the book at once above the level of ordinary fiction."
PIERRE AND JEAN.
By GUY DE MAUPASSANT.
Translated from the French by CLARA BELL. With
Introduction by EDMUND GOSSE. In One Volume,
crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. ; or Paper Covers, 2s. 6d.
Mr. Henry James writes:-"As far as my judgment goes, a
faultless production."
Pall Mall Gazette.-"So fine and faultless, so perfectly balanced,
so steadily progressive, so clear and simple and satisfying. It is
admirable from beginning to end."
Sunday Times.-"Delightfully fresh and breezy in tone, and as
pure as heart could wish.”
Athenæum.—“Ranks amongst the best gems of modern French
fiction." "It would not have been easy to find two contemporary
works better worth translating into English."
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
15
MR. WILLIAM HEINEMANN'S LIST.
THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN AMERICA.
By RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., Associate in Political
Economy, Johns Hopkins University. In One Volume,
crown 8vo, 58.
Weekly Despatch.—““'
"There is much to interest and instruct."
Saturday Review.-"Both interesting and valuable."
England." Full of information and thought.
*)
National Reformer.-"Chapter iii. deals with the growth and
present condition of labour organisations in America. . . this forms
a most valuable page of history.'
""
ARABIC AUTHORS: A Manual of Arabian
History and Literature. ByF.F.ARBUTHNOT, M.R.A.S.,
Author of "Early Ideas," "Persian Portraits," &c. In
One Volume 8vo, Ios.
Manchester Examiner.-"The whole work has been carefully
indexed, and will prove a handbook of the highest value to the
student who wishes to gain a better acquaintance with Arabian
letters."
IDLE MUSINGS: Essays in Social Mosaic.
By E. CONDER GRAY, Author of "Wise Words and
Loving Deeds," &c. &c. In One Volume, crown 8vo, 6s.
Saturday Review.-"Light, brief, and bright are the essays in
social mosaic.' Mr. Gray ranges like a butterfly from high themes to
trivial with a good deal of dexterity and a profusion of illustrations."
Graphic.— Pleasantly written, will serve admirably to wile away
an idle half-hour or two."
IVY AND PASSION FLOWER: Poems. By
GERARD BENDALL, Author of "Estelle," &c. &c.
38. 6d.
12m0,
""
Scotsman. "Will be read with pleasure.
Woman.—"There is a delicacy of touch and simplicity about the
poems which is very attractive.
Musical World. 'The poems are delicate specimens of art, grace-
ful and polished."
VERSES. By GERTRUDE HALL.
Musical World.—"Interesting volume of verse.
Woman.-"Very sweet and musical.
Manchester Guardian." Will be welcome to every lover of poetry
who takes it up.
""
16
I2mo, 3s. 6d.
>>
21 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON, W.C.
+16%
Heinemann's International Library
May be obtained in England of all Booksellers and Bookstalls, and of
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NEW BOOKS AT ALL LIBRARIES.
THE MOMENT AFTER: A Tale of the Unseen.
By ROBERT BUCHANAN. 1 vol. IOS. 6d.
A MARKED MAN: Some Episodes in his Life.
By ADA CAMBRIDGE
3 vols.
IN THE VALLEY. By HAROLD FREDERIC. 3 vols.
THE BONDMAN: A New Saga. By HALL CAINE.
I vol. 3s. 6d.
FORTH! A Tale of the Time of Christ.
By ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS and HERBERT D. WARD. I vol. 75. 6ḍ.
THE MASTER OF THE MAGICIANS. A Story of
Babylon. By E. S. PHELPS and H. D. Ward.
THE DOMINANT SEVENTH.
I vol
75. 6d.
A Musical Story.
By KATE E. CLARK. I vol. 5s.
HAUNTINGS: Fantastic Stories. By VERNON LEE.
I vol. 6s.
A VERY STRANGE FAMILY. By F. W. ROBINSON.
I vol. 3s. 6d.
PASSION THE PLAYTHING.
By R. MURRAY GIL-
CHRIST. I vol. 6s.
LONDON: WM. HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORd Street, W.C.
#4
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POPULAR EDITION IN ONE VOLUME.
Crown 8yo, Cloth, price 3s. 6d.
THE BONDMAN


A NEW SAGA.
By HALL CAINE.
TENTH THOUSAND,
MR. GLADSTONE says:-"The Bondman' is a work of which I
recognise the freshness, vigour, and sustained interest no less than its
integrity of aim."
Times-" It is impossible to deny originality and rude power to this saga, impossible
not to admire its forceful directness, and the colossal grandeur of its leading characters."
Athenæum-" Three volumes of crowded incidents."
Academy-"It is a splendid novel."
Observer-"Many of the descriptions are picturesque and powerful.-
their way as anything in modern literature.'
•
As fine in
We are, in
·
Speaker-"It reaches a level to which fiction very rarely attains.
fact, so loth to let such good work be degraded by the title of novel,' that we are almost
tempted to consider its claims to rank as a prose epic."
Liverpool Mercury—“ A story which will be read, not by his contemporaries alone, but
by later generations, so long as its chief features-high emotion, deep passion, exquisite
poetry, and true pathos-have power to delight and to touch the heart.
Scotsman-" Is distinctly ahead of all the fictional literature of our time, and fit to
rank with the most powerful fictional writing of the past century."
**
Evening News and Post--"There has been nothing like this book in recent
literature.'
Whitehall Review-" Deserves to live as an ensample to future generations of what
the art of fiction was brought to in the nineteenth century.'
"
Sunday Times—" Strong and magical.”
Pall Mall Gazette-"It is the product of a strenuous and sustained imaginative effort
far beyond the power of an every-day story-teller."
Scots Observer-"In none of his previous works has he approached the splendour of
idealism which flows through 'The Bondman.'
> ""
Manchester Guardian—“A remarkable story, painted with vigour and brilliant
effect."
St. James's Gazette—“A striking and highly dramatic piece of fiction."
Globe-" Decidedly a book to be read."
Star-"An absorbingly interesting story."
Literary World-"The book abounds in pages of great force and beauty, and there
is a touch of almost Homeric power in its massive and grand simplicity."
Liverpool Post-" Graphic, dramatic, pathetic, heroic, full of detail, crowded with
incident and inspired by a noble purpose.'
Yorkshire Post—“ A book of lasting interest.”
Daily Graphic-"Vigorous in conception, vivid in style."
LONDON: WM. HEINEMANN, 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.
:
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