O well for him whose will is strong, He suffers, but he shall not suffer long; He suffers, but he cannot suffer wrong {164} It needs more courage than you were required to show on the field of battle. But the reward is sure. I feel strongly that this life is but the prelude to a larger life, when each faculty will have its full exercise. Ah yet, when all is thought and said, The heart still overrules the head; Still what we hope we must believe, And what is given us receive; Must still believe, for still we hope, That in a world of larger scope, What here is faithfully begun Will be completed, not undone. These words come from dough--the soul of honesty. _To H. J. B._ Derwent Hill, Ebchester, Durham: April 14, 1902. It seems to me a truism to say that we ought to look at life in the light of eternity. Only then does the true significance of the meanest action in life appear. Life is redeemed from triviality and vulgarity. So far from worldly possessions losing their value, and ordinary occupations appearing insignificant, their importance is realised as never before. If man does not live for ever, his character and actions seem of comparative unimportance. If he does live for ever, it is rational for him to look at each action in the light of that larger life which he inherits. If something like class distinctions are eternal, it is an inducement so to use your distinctive privileges here in a worthy manner, that hereafter you may use them for nobler ends. {165} I have expressed myself badly, but you will see what I want to say. My relations to you surely become not less, but more important, when I realise that I am only beginning to know and love you here. The eternal element in them--the knowledge that there is throughout an implicit reference to a Third and Unseen Person in all that I say to you or think of you--fills me with a sense of awe, and makes the relations more real because more spiritual. _To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._ July 6, 1902.