* * * * *

There are those who will say: "At any rate, we might moderate somewhat
the splendour of our ideal and the audacity of our self-conceit, so that
there should be a less grotesque disparity between the aim and the
achievement. Surely such moderation would be more in accord with common
sense! Surely it would lessen the spiritual fatigue and disappointment
caused by sterile endeavour!" It would. But just try to moderate the
ideal and the self-conceit! And you will find, in spite of all your sad
experiences, that you cannot. If there is the stuff of a man in you, you
simply cannot! The truth, is that, in the supreme things, a man does
not act under the rules of earthly common sense. He transcends them,
because there is a quality in him which compels him to do so. Common
sense may persuade him to attempt to keep down the ideal, and
self-conceit may pretend to agree. But all the time, self-conceit will
be whispering: "I can go one better than that." And lo! the ideal is
furtively raised again.

A man really has little scientific control over the height of his ideal
and the intensity of his belief in himself. He is born with them, as he
is born with a certain pulse and a certain reflex action. He can neglect
the ideal, so that it almost dissolves, but he cannot change its height.
He can maim his belief in himself by persistent abandonment to folly,
but he cannot lower its flame by an effort of the will, as he might
lower the flame of a gas by a calculated turn of the hand. In the secret
and inmost constitution of humanity it is ordained that the disparity
between the aim and the achievement shall seem grotesque; it is ordained
that there shall be an enormous fuss about pretty nearly nothing; it is
ordained that the mountain shall bring forth a mouse. But it is also