sun and moon and the eleven stars, to say nothing of the sheaves,
are going to make obeisance to us. We want to be impressive, rich,
beautiful, influential, admired, envied; and then, as we move
forward, the visions fade. We have to be content if, in a quiet
corner, a single sheaf gives us a nod of recognition; and as for
the eleven stars, they seem unaware of our very existence! And then
we make further discoveries; that when we have seemed to ourselves
most impressive, we have only been pretentious; that riches are
only a talisman against poverty, and even make suffering and pain
and grief more unendurable; that beauty fades into stolidity or
weariness; that influence comes mostly to people who do not pursue
it, and that the best kind of influence belongs to those who do not
even know that they possess it; that admiration is but a brilliant
husk, which may or may not contain a wholesome kernel; and as for
envy, there is poison in that cup! And then we become aware that
the best crowns have fallen to those who have not sought them, and
that simple-minded and unselfish people have won the prize which
has been denied to brilliance and ambition.

That is the process which is often called disillusionment; and it
is a sad enough business for people who only look at one side of
the medal, and who brood over the fact that they have been
disappointed and have failed. For such as these, there follow the
faded years of cynicism and dreariness. But that disillusionment,
that humiliation, are the freshest and most beautiful things in the
world, for people who have real generosity of spirit, and whose
vanity has been of a superficial kind; because they thus realise
that these great gifts are real and true things, but that they must
be deserved and not captured; and then perhaps such people begin
their life-work afresh, in a humble and hopeful spirit; and if it