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and nothing remains tradition and name." 1 it not so? Think of it. If Man would but rise to this dignity which his Maker has designed for him and placed within his reach, it would immediately put an end to innumerable schemes of folly and imposture, sacred and secular.

18. The Individual must be his own Pope in Poetry and the Arts of the Soul, or remain unenfranchised of them.-Therefore with regard to any doctrine which I may advance in these essays, let it be as zero, I repeat, to every student until he has personally confirmed it or refuted it within the sacred circumference or territory of his own consciousness. Rightly speaking, the true man's heart is the only consecrated dwelling or territory in the whole world. If you want external authorities for this doctrine, take the author of the Book of Job. "There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding "-not one man here and another there, but every man if he will but consent to avail himself of the great privileges conferred upon him. The Apostle Paul is equally emphatic: "Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 2 St Chrysostom is reported to say: "The true Shekinah is man.' Carlyle and Richter follow the doctrine; so that the leading historic authorities also are on my side when I speak of the sacred circumference of your own consciousness-when I assert the moral freedom and dignity and the esthetical potentiality of the individual man.

1 Travels in Italy,' p. 401. See an instructive passage in Ruskin on "the unaccountable and happy instincts of the careless time." Modern Painters,' Vol. ii. p. 42.

2 1 Cor. iii. 16. The thought again occurs.-Ib., vi. 19; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Eph. ii. 21-2; Heb. iii. 6. Much more like the truth than his theory of man as a potter's vessel !

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Thus, happily, it needs no great pundit to introduce us to God and show us the way to Heaven. Let each man, then, be his own Pope in Poetry and Literature as in all other high things. I believe it will be found to be an infinitely better method of arriving at uniformity of conviction regarding such things than by trying to square our opinions with school doctrines and charging dissentients with heresy. Speaking for myself, I am firmly convinced that there is no heresy in the World, either secular or sacred, except the deadly heresy of neglecting one's own soul and being false to one's own heart convictions. This I hold to be the real rebellion against God; this I hold to be heresy worse than that of Dathan and Abiram. Probably most of my readers will at once agree with the doctrine. Those who do not, I request them to ponder over it earnestly, sacredly, as in the sight of God and regardless of passionate prepossessions and conventional opinions. If they consent to follow this line of action, they will probably agree with our doctrine ultimately.

19. Whilst all Human Souls are built upon the same principles, they are neither all geniuses nor all dunces.-There are, however, one or two cautions to offer in connection with it. Obviously it contains the conclusion that all Human Souls are built upon the same principles. All my own experiences, together with all my reading of ancient and modern authors-poets, philosophers, historians, travellers, and the rest,-bring me to the conclusion that Mankind are homogeneous through and through, ancient and modern, and one race with another. "He hath disgraced and hindered me half a million," says Shylock; "he has laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled

my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapon, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same summer and winter as a Christian is! If you prick us, do we not bleed! If you tickle us, do we not laugh! If you poison us, do we not die! And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge! And I think it is the same all over. "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man." There is an essential oneness and conformity between Jew and Gentile, Christian and Heathen-always remembering, of course, that men are neither all geniuses nor all dunces, nor arrived at an equal pitch of self-realisation. The most civilised nations and the most barbarous tribes seem to participate essentially in a common humanity. The rudiments and common principles of humanity are, I apprehend, essentially the same in Timbuctoo as they are in London. Touching moral feeling, "I have seen the negroes," " said Winwoode Reade, "start with horror at our pictures of battlefields covered with the wounded and the dead, and cry, 'Oh, white man, too cruel, too cruel!' Such,' he comments, are the anomalies of human nature. The gay light-hearted Parisian, the mild peace-loving negroes, are transformed to monsters when their passions are roused." 1 So, too, with regard to the feeling of Honour. There is an Ashantee proverb: "Death is better than shame "—a sentiment up to which they have sometimes gloriously lived, as in the case of one of their captains, who, after the loss of the Battle of Volta against the Accras, committed suicide as heroically as a Cassius or a

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1 'The African Sketch-Book,' Vol. i. p. 55.

Brutus.1 Nor in the matter of tenderness do they seem to be much behind Europeans. Mr Reade instances the case of a child with six fingers giving rise to some derision amongst certain of the natives; whereupon, says he, "the father drew the child gently towards him, and said a few words in a tone of inexpressible tenderness and pity." What more could the most humane parent among ourselves have done? Mr Reade comes to the conclusion that the more he saw of those Africans, the more he was inclined to believe that Europeans had underrated their parental affection.2 Speaking generally, he remarks in another place: "My long and varied experience of the African race has brought me to believe that they can be made white men in all that is more than skin-deep." 3 Nor is their regard for gewgaws and fetishes in Religion one whit more degrading than the corresponding superstitions which are to be found among Sacerdotal "Christians." True, Mr Reade writes that when a trading ship arrives, "the whole town breaks out into dance and song. Now,' they cry, 'Now,' they cry, we shall have beads! Now we shall have tobacco! Now we shall have rum.' "4 But even in those demon

1 See also about the heroism of the Ashantee boy recorded in 'The African Sketch-Book,' Vol. ii. pp. 174-5.

2 The African Sketch-Book,' Vol. ii. p. 8.

8 Ib., p. 326. Livingstone's opinion was that the West Coast African had been debased by the unhealthy land in which he lived. Ib., Vol. i., note, p. 108. It should be noticed incidentally that all such facts are utterly opposed to Darwinism. The Darwinian might be defined as one who has a great appetite for fish stories.

4 Ib., Vol. i. p. 24. "I suppose the ordinary European looks down on such men as these native black men. I do not, for they are the finest type of humanity, and it is a pleasure to record the valuable help they were always ready to give, and the singularly delightful type of courtesy that was present in every village even so far from what we call civilisation."-C. S. Craven in The Niger Route" in 'The Morning Post,' 27th December 1921.

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strations there is nothing very astonishing. Consider how Europeans even dote upon beads, tobacco, and rum-yes, and upon indulgences and profligacies of still greater depravity. Consider the foul garments that are sometimes discovered under the flimsy fineries of European drabs!

20. There are great differences of detail in our intellectual and spiritual circumstances, training and equipment, but complete homogeneity in respect of the elementary characters of our constitution.-There is no doubt, of course, that differences-large differences of detail abound in our intellectual and spiritual circumstances, training, and equipment; but I think that there will be found among mankind at large a substantial sameness of faculties and general endowment-a complete homogeneity in respect of the elementary characters of our constitution. The Bond Street man, whose soul delights itself in clothes, would, if brought up in a savage country, manifest his particular passion, in all probability, by wearing great quantities of paint, feathers, and wampum. In civilised as in savage countries, ornaments are the first things almost that barbarians put on. Amongst women, the papilionaceous species is shockingly common even in civilised countries. On the other hand, any sane adult individual of any savage tribe under the sun would probably, after some tuition, be capable of becoming a decent citizen in any civilised country; and in becoming such a citizen he would certainly be regarded as amenable to the laws of that country. So within a civilised community the Right Hon. Nathaniel Balderdash, say, and even his most ignorant followers, are deemed to be equally responsible before the Law. His most ignorant follower is taken to know the Law, “Thou shalt not steal,” just as the right hon. gentleman himself is taken to know it. The great