But this scepticism, based upon the ground that in the Gospel story is found "too much love," is illogical, since it suggests by implication the belief of man that his fellow mortals, in whom he daily discerns abundant capacity for ill-will, have been yet capable of inventing a scheme of perfect love such as that involved in the history of the Incarnation. The doctrine that this was the divine work is assuredly less difficult of credence than that which assigns it to the invention of the human imagination? Disbelief on this the ground of "too much love," revealed in the Gospel story, is dealt with also by the Evangelist in _A Death in the Desert_. There, too, is presented a position similar to that occupied by the soliloquist of Easter Day. Through satiety, man Has turned round on himself and stands,[70] Which in the course of nature is, to die. When man demanded proof of the existence of a God, the representative of Power and Will, evidence of all was granted-- And when man questioned, "What if there be love Behind the will and might, as real as they?"-- He needed satisfaction God could give, And did give, as ye have the written word. But when the written word no longer sufficed, when (following the argument of this thirtieth Section of _Easter Day_) man believed himself to be the originator of love, when Beholding that love everywhere, He reasons, "Since such love is everywhere, And since ourselves can love and would be loved, We ourselves make the love, and Christ was not." Then, asks the Evangelist, How shall ye help this man who knows himself, That he must love and would be loved again, Yet, owning his own love that proveth Christ, Rejecteth Christ through very need of Him? The lamp o'erswims with oil, the stomach flags Loaded with nurture, and that man's soul dies.[71] The soliloquist of _Easter Day_, experiencing practically the position imagined by St. John, makes (with the opening of Section XXXI) a final appeal to the Love of God, that he may be permitted to continue in that uncertainty which, in the midst of "darkness, hunger, toil, distress," yet allows room for hope. Better the sufferings of unending struggle than the deadly calm of despair. To him who has experienced what satiety may bring, the life of probation offers powerful attractions. Whether the Vision may have been a reality or the creation of his own imagination, even this uncertainty is preferable to the judgment that shall grudge "no ease henceforth," whilst the soul is "condemned to earth for ever." Thus the poem closes with the inevitable demand of the soul for progress, for growth; and the collateral recognition of its present life as a state of probation, hence of essential uncertainty-- Only let me go on, go on, Still hoping ever and anon To reach one eve the Better Land! (ll. 1001-1003.)