' Next day you will find yourself believing a
little less feebly, and finally your faith will be absolute, certain,
and established."
And why not--you of the schools who split hairs and dispute and come
to nothing in the end, and whose knowledge, after all, as Savonarola
so well said, comes to nothing--why not? For if you cannot _prove_ God
and Christ and Immortality, it is very sure you cannot _disprove_
them; and it is safe--yes, and splendid--to believe in these three
marvelous realities; or conceptions, if you like that word better.
The doctrine of _noblesse oblige_ was one of the most beautiful of
human conventions. It was based upon the proposition that a man being
noble and the son of a nobleman could not do a mean thing--it was not
good form.
But if a man gets it into his consciousness that he is the child, not
of a nobleman, not of an earthly ruler, not of a great statesman,
warrior, scientist, or financier, _but of the living God_ who
presides over the universe, how large, how generous, how exalted, and
how fine his attitude toward life and all his conduct needs must be.
Savonarola was not alone in the vast crowds he drew by the simple
method he followed.
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