Did a thing like this have to be talked by the few for several thousand
years before it broke its way into the conception of the many, and
finally began to draw the materials of action together? It had not been
new in certain parts of the world two thousand years ago when Jesus
brought the perfect story of it, and administered it through life and
death. Had there been too much speech and too little action since; or
did all this speech help; the result being slow but cumulative, toward
the end of the clearly-chiselled thought on the part of the majority
that would compel the atoms of matter into action, making good all
thoughts and dreams?... He knew men who sat every Sunday listening
courteously to more or less inspired voices that called upon them to
_Love One Another_; yet these men, during the next six days, moved as
usual about their work of rivalry and burning personal desire. Why was
this?
The answer was in his own breast. He had made a mental conception of
the good of turning the force of one’s life out to others, but he had
not lived it; had never thought seriously of living it, until now that
the results had been shown him, as mortal eyes were never given before
to see. That was it; men required more than words. Would something
happen to bring to all men at last the transfiguring facts as they had
been brought to him in the open boat--squarely, leisurely, one by one?
He was not different from many men. Given the spectacle of the fruits
of desire and the fruits of compassion side by side, as he had been
forced to regard them--any one would understand.
The woman was one of those who had got it all long ago. She had ceased
to speak of it much, but had put it into action. The child was a part
of her action, and his own love for her--that new emotion, deeper than
life to him. She had mainly ceased to speak.... Action and not speech
had been the way of Fleury, his main life-theme, his first and last
words. Formerly Fleury had spoken, and then emerged into the world of
action. It had been tremendous action--for them. These things never
die.
“That’s the beauty of them,” he said aloud. “These things never die.”
“You were thinking of _him_?” the Faraway Woman said.
* * * * *
The _Fomalhaut_ left them at Auckland--insular, high and breezy
between its harbours and warm to the heart, from the southern summer.
They took the train to Hamilton, near where she had lived....
“It seems so long since I was a part of the life here,” she told him,
as they climbed a hill by the long road--the same upon which Olga’s
Guest had come, “and yet it really isn’t. You can see--how little the
Gleam is. He was born here.... There was so much to learn. It has been
like a quick review of all life. When I think of it--and feel the child
alive, unhurt--oh, do you know what it makes me want to do?”
Bellair was thinking of Fleury. He sensed her emotion, as he shook his
head.
“It makes me want to work for you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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