The great man or woman of the Spirit who achieves this perfect development is, it is true, a special product: a genius, comparable with great creative personalities in other walks of life. But he neither invalidates the smaller talent nor the more general tendency in which his supreme gift takes its rise. Where he appears, that tendency is vigorously stimulated. Like other artists, he founds a school; the spiritual life flames up, and spreads to those within his circle of influence. Through him, ordinary men, whose aptitude for God might have remained latent, obtain a fresh start; an impetus to growth. There is a sense in which he might say with the Johannine Christ, "He that receiveth me receiveth Him that sent me"; for yielding to his magnetism, men really yield to the drawing of the Spirit itself. And when they do this, their lives are found to reproduce--though with less intensity--the life history of their leader. Therefore the main characters of that life history, that steady undivided process of sublimation; are normal human characters. We too may heal the discords of our moral nature, learn to judge existence in the universal light, bring into consciousness our latent transcendental sense, and keep ourselves so spiritually supple that alike in times of stress and hours of prayer and silence we are aware of the mysterious and energizing contact of God. Psychology suggests to us that the great spiritual personalities revealed in history are but supreme instances of a searching self-adjustment and of a way of life, always accessible to love and courage, which all men may in some sense undertake. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 42: Everard, "Some Gospel Treasures Opened," p. 555] [Footnote 43: _Canor Dulcor, Canor;_ cf. Rolle: "The Fire of Love," Bk. 1, Cap. 14] [Footnote 44: Rolle: "The Mending of Life," Cap. XII.] [Footnote 45: Benedetto Croce: "Theory and History of Historiography," trans. by Douglas Ainslie, p. 25.] [Footnote 46: "Donne's Sermons," p. 236.] [Footnote 47: B.H. Streeter, in "The Spirit," p. 349 _seq_.] [Footnote 48: "Autobiography of Maharishi Devendranath Tagore," Cap. 23.] [Footnote 49: R.A. Nicholson: "Studies in Islamic Mysticism," Cap. i.] [Footnote 50: Baron von Huegel In the "Hibbert Journal," July, 1921.] [Footnote 51: Ruysbroeck: "The Sparkling Stone," Cap. 10.] [Footnote 52: Ruysbroeck: "The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage," Bk. II, Cap. 39.] [Footnote 53: R. of St. Victor: "De Quatuor Gradibus Violentae Charitatis" (Migne, Pat. Lat.) T. 196, Col. 1216.] [Footnote 54: "Summa Contra Gentiles," Bk. III, Cap. 21.] [Footnote 55: J.E. Shorthouse: "John Inglesant," Cap. 19.] [Footnote 56: Cf. Delatte: "The Rule of St. Benedict"; and C. Butler: "Benedictine Monachism."] [Footnote 57: R.A. Nicholson: "Studies in Islamic Mysticism," Cap. 1.] [Footnote 58: "One Hundred Poems of Kabir," p. 44.] [Footnote 59: Boehme: "Six Theosophic Points," p. 111.]