Says Savonarola, the martyr for freedom and truth, “God is essentially free, and the just man is the free man after the likeness of God. * * * The only true liberty consists in the desire for righteousness. * * * Dost thou desire liberty, O Florence? Citizens! would you be free? Love God, love one another, seek the general welfare. We despise no good works, nor rational laws, albeit they proceed from the most distant places, from philosophers or pagan empires, but we glean everywhere that which is good and true from all creeds, knowing that all goodness proceeds from God.” To be good and to do good is the highest aim of man. It is to know the physical, moral and social laws and to obey them. A good man, from the necessity of his nature, will do good. To be good and do good, is good or Godlike, and to be Godlike is to be saved. This is the sum total of life. O God! help me to be good and do good, that I may be saved. CHAPTER XXXVI. The years were passing and very little occurred to break the humdrum of our life. We never were idle, for if not occupied in the duties that succeeded each other, as the night the day, we were engaged in our mutual studies. I had never told my wife of my father, or of Mr. Smith being my half brother. Somehow, I never could muster up courage enough to do this. Not only that, but I felt that if I should once begin, I should have to go through the hateful story from a to izzard, and I shrank from the task. The longer I delayed the less inclined I was to do it. There was so much in it that was awful and disgusting, that I would have given much to have blotted it from my own memory, and did not wish to soil her pure mind with its recital. Somewhere, I have read of a painter who said that he never looked upon a bad picture but he carried away a dirty tint. My wife was to me as a priceless painting by the greatest of masters, and I wished to preserve her in all her loveliness and purity. I tried constantly to cultivate this feeling, and with this thought uppermost, I very often restrained myself from saying or doing what might soil her mind. I may be peculiar in this, as I am in so many things, yet I am what I am, and what else should I be? I am reminded of something Mr. Jasper told me in one of his interesting conversations. It was about one of his visits in Paris. One evening, looking at a shop window on one of the boulevards, he was approached by a young man who presented his card and offered to be his guide. “What have you to show me?” asked Mr. Jasper.