REACTION TO EXPERIENCE

and hardships" * ; it passes the wit of man to account for their being there ; it is futile to imagine that they are being manipulated, in respect of each individual, by an over-watching, scrutinizing God, either to test or to tease us ; equally futile to try to conceive better possible, imaginary worlds ; the critical fact is that there is in human persons an inhérent faculty of reacting to expérience of every kind, and of growing, developing, realizing soul-potential thereby. It is an andent word,

Because thou hast made the Most High thy babLtation« there shall no evil befall thee.

This does not mean that a good many sinîster and unwelcome things shall not happen to thee at the life-drcumference — where "things" do happen — but because thou hast found and fixed thy true life-centre, thou shalt find the right reactions even to them, and apparent evil shall minister growth and " more life" — that is, good.

The value of expérience is in what it ehcits within the soûl ; and the secret of Ufewardness is to find the right reaction to expérience. This secret is disclosed to the man who realizes his true identity with the Whole ; it is he who " knows the right place by the foot's feel, takes it, and treads firm there."

Probably most of us to begin with find the wrong reactions. For example, to seek always

^ Bosanquet in The Meaning and Valus of ths Individual»