One is what one believes oneself to be. If one believes oneself to be an animal one becomes bestial; if one believes oneself spiritual one becomes Divine. Faith is an effective force whose measure has never yet been taken. Man is the creature of heredity and environment. He can only rise superior to circumstances by bringing God into environment of which he is conscious. The recognition of God's presence upsets the balance of a man's environment, and means a new birth into a new life. The faculties which perceive God increase with use like any other perceptive faculties. Belief in God may be an illusion; but it is an illusion that pays. If belief in God is illusion, happy is he who is deluded! He gains this world and thinks he will gain the next. The disbeliever loses this world, and risks losing the next. To be the centre of one's universe is misery. To have one's universe centred in God is the peace that passeth understanding. Greatness is founded on inward peace. Energy is only effective when it springs from deep calm. The pleasure of life lies in contrasts; the fear of contrasts is a chain that binds most men. In the hour of danger a man is proven. The boaster hides, and the egotist trembles. He whose care is for others forgets to be afraid. Men live for eating and drinking, passion and wealth. They die for honour. Blessed is he of whom it has been said that he so loved giving that he even gave his own life. X IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS III SCENE. _A trench unpleasantly near the firing line. There has been an hour's intense bombardment by the British, with suitable retaliation by the Boches. The retaliation is just dying down._ CHARACTERS. ALBERT--_Round-eyed, rotund, red-cheeked, yellow-haired, and deliberate; in civil life probably a drayman._ JIM--_Small, lean, sallow, grey-eyed, with a kind of quiet restlessness; in civil life probably a mechanic with leanings towards Socialism._ POZZIE--_A thick-set, low-browed, impassive, silent_ _country youth, with a face the colour of the soil._ JINKS--_An old soldier, red, lean, wrinkled, with very blue eyes. His face is rough-hewn, almost grotesque like a gargoyle. In his eyes there is a perpetual glint of humour, and in the poise of his head a certain irrepressible jauntiness._ ALBERT (_whose eyes are more staring than ever, his cheeks pendulous and crimson, his general air that of a partly deflated air-cushion_). Gawd's truth! JINKS (_wagging his head_). Well, my old sprig o' mint, what's wrong wi' you? ALBERT. It ain't right. (_Sententiously_) It's agin natur'. Flesh an' blood weren't made for this sort o' think. JIM. It ain't flesh an' blood that can't stand it. It's Mind. Look at old Pozzie. 'E's flesh an' blood, and don't turn an 'air! For myself I'll go potty one o' these days. JINKS (_slapping POZZIE on the back_). You don't take no notice, do you, old lump o' duff?