APPRECIATION

to me." St AQgiistiiie is baman, bat tbe alniost hanowmg f eding of induct-

Caipenter is intensely bot lit vu fails to coQvey tbe insiniitiiig oi nuiHnable hnman strengtb and glory.

** Be stiD. O Soul, and know tbat tbou art God" He gîves eut the sease of a gieat lif e, wbich is tbe ■atnnl medliiiu d the soul's eadsteace, but from îsshDt ont, not irom any fault of one's bot inder the operatioii of a cosmic créative impuse ; the inqnsoomeiit is not ponitive. but éducative ; and it is leal enoogh and stubbom coo^i^ to guaiantee tbat wben tbe piisoner cscapes be sfaail be wortby and able to live tbe life tiiat «aits beyond tbe walls. Not a few peuple grope and fomble round tbe barriers of tbeir prison in bope of finding an outlet somewbat ; some are even at tbe àoor, yet cannot laîse tbe latcb or tum tbe key; only tp tbe favoured ones^ as to Paul and Silas, do tbe doors fly open of tbemsdves ; Carpenter says/' Lo ! I open a door." Tbat is wby we love bim.

In some socb case Tamards Democracy f ound me. I sboold be taking an unpardcmable advantage of my readers if I intruded my personal ezpeiience upon tbem : it ivill suffice to say that towards tbe dimax of an inward personal ciisis ^diicb bad been gatbering for some years, the voice came to me also, '* ToUe, Itge/' and the scripture tbat was in my hand was Towards Democracy.

Deep, deep is fhy faeart As I sink in it, lo I ihett is nothing, nothing which is not hdd by thy love.

On the surface tliere is rejection and discrimination» but in the depth lo 1 everything is held by it.^

Words which in an ordinary way appear ahnost colourless and conunonplace receive, when sounded in the exceptional hour, a magical beauty and potency; and to me thèse words were like a divine call issuing from the great Life of equality, freedom, love. With the suddenness of a miracle I was out through the open door ; my Self was harmonised; my problems were not solved, they were transcended ; if ever I shonld engage with them again, it wonld be from a point above them. I was standing on a hiU-top taking deep breaths of sun and wind and space. Never, since childhood, had I been so inwardly peaceful, balanced, strong, happy. I was ont in the open at last.

Shortly afterwards, I met Carpenter for the first time. I will venture to transcribe a page from my note-book in which, a day or two later, I set down my first impressions of the man.

I was about to take a short solitary walkingtour, and Carpenter had asked me to make MiUthorpe, the little Derbyshire hamlet in which he has lived for thirty years and still résides, my jumping-off place. He had promised to come out along the road to meet me. It was a quiet evening after a hot July day when I left the train

A ratSfSSAL AFmBCIATION

on ladc I

aadoot oo the broad

sDputcd bfidge-

at a soridcp tumn^ of

iBslamy ; miless I had

lârtli, I conld Dot hâve

Ihe sixiietli nalestoiie

ras by evcry ouiwaid

Hkc» alUetic in ai^Kar-

wtA fret stride and higfa stq>;

hat tihed a lîttie to cMie àde in

fufcmi of Walt Whitznan ; he

a stick îa lis faand, and had some-

€< a care-free boy aboat him.