strength grows directly out of it, for it throws us back on God, who is the greatest ally a man can have. And all this surely is a "comfort."

But many people think of humility as something weak and even despicable, and altogether fail to understand what a great part it plays in the conduct of life. It is, however, directly related to holiness. We read of "holy and humble men of heart," and we know that the saints of God have been humble men. Nor is this quality inconsistent with a true and proper pride. There was sometimes a mock humility and a wicked pride among the Puritans, but Macaulay was right when he said of the true Puritan that he was a man who would humble himself to the dust in the presence of his Maker, and yet set his foot on the neck of his king. It is so with all men of the right spirit in their struggle against wrong. They are strong-but they realize that their strength is not their own. So they are both humble and confident. These two qualities have been finely illustrated in the lives of the true saints. They were both the servants of God and the masters of themselves, with all their powers well

knit. And this is the true Christian type. So again it seems that Thackeray is right, and also that the principle which he laid down has a broader application than it might at first blush be thought to have. Men in these days are not much given to thinking of humility as a strong and masterful quality-but such it seems to be. Nor do many realize that humility "will help and comfort us," and yet it appears that it may help and comfort those who work at any task as well as those who write books. To realize that you may not, because of your weakness, be able to do all that is expected of you, and yet to have the courage to make the effort-surely this is the right attitude for one to maintain toward life and its problems. One may, on the proper ground, excuse oneself for failure, but never for failure to make the attempt. If it were not so, the men with the highest aspirations would be the most wretched of creatures, for the higher the aspirations the wider is the interval between them and the man's performance. But the aspirations themselves ought to count for much, provided there is an honest effort to live up to them. Truly

"industry and humility will help and comfort us," as they have comforted all who have fought the good fight, even though they may not seem to have enjoyed the triumph.

VIOLENCE OF SPEECH

'HERE are few things that have a worse

THE

effect on character than violence of speech -on the character both of those who indulge in it and those who hear or read it. It beclouds our reason, disturbs our judgment, and betrays us into many and serious mistakes. Many men exposed to this contagion identify strength and power with violence, and so when a man states his case moderately and calmly, or meets an attack with good temper and courtesy, the statement and reply are almost certain to be characterized as "weak" by those who have fallen into the vice of violence or who have learned to admire it as a virtue. And so we come to rely, not on the truth itself, but on the outrageous way in which it is put before us, and to assume that those who do not use the same vehicle of expression are not telling the truth. There could hardly be a more abhorrent confusion of ideas. For the result is, not simply the mistaking of violence for

strength, but the mistaking of weakness for strength, inasmuch as violence is the weapon of intellectual or moral weakness.

The case is one of the misuse of powers, of the confounding of such things as light and darkness, for instance, to such an extent as to make the very light itself bring darkness to us. This is also the thought of Isaiah, who pronounced woe upon those "that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." The first duty of man as a thinking animal is to differentiate and discriminate, especially between virtue and vice, and this he can not do if he yields to savage fits of temper. Not only can he not discriminate, but he actually comes in time to put evil in the place of good.

The matter may be considered in two ways -first as related to life, and second as related to literature. The conclusion is the same in both cases, and naturally, inasmuch as literature is the product, the analysis, the criticism, and the picture of life. The two can not be separated, for when they are really vital they run into each other. However, we may dis