I have said that you cannot imagine the feeling of the energy of daily life applied in the real meaning of those words.  You cannot imagine it, but you can prove it.  Are any of you willing, simply as a philosophical experiment in the greatest of sciences, to adopt the principles and feelings of these men of a thousand years ago for a given time, say for a year?  It cannot possibly do you any harm to try, and you cannot possibly learn what is true in these things, without trying.  If after a year’s experience of such method you find yourself no happier than before, at least you will be able to support your present opinions at once with more grace and more modesty; having conceded the trial it asked for, to the opposite side.  Nor in acting temporarily on a faith you do not see to be reasonable, do you compromise your own integrity more, than in conducting, under a chemist’s directions, an experiment of which he foretells inexplicable consequences.  And you need not doubt the power you possess over your own minds to do this.  Were faith not voluntary, it could not be praised, and would not be rewarded.

If you are minded thus to try, begin each day with Alfred’s prayer,—­fiat voluntas tua; resolving that you will stand to it, and that nothing that happens in the course of the day shall displease you.  Then set to any work you have in hand with the sifted and purified resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love of gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed for you; and that no anxiety shall touch you as to its issue, nor any impatience nor regret if it fail.  Imagine that the thing is being done through you, not by you; that the good of it may never be known, but that at least, unless by your rebellion or foolishness, there can come no evil into it, nor wrong chance to it.  Resolve also with steady industry to do what you can for the help of your country and its honour, and the honour of its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do and feel you will look frankly for the immediate help and direction, and to your own consciences, expressed approval, of God.  Live thus, and believe, and with swiftness of answer proportioned to the frankness of the trust, most surely the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

But, if you will not do this, if you have not courage nor heart enough to break away the fetters of earth, and take up the sensual bed of it, and walk; if you say that you are bound to win this thing, and become the other thing, and that the wishes of your friends,—­and the interests of your family,—­and the bias of your genius,—­and the expectations of your college,—­and all the rest of the bow-wow-wow of the wild dog-world, must be attended to, whether you like it or no,—­then, at least, for shame give up talk about being free or independent creatures; recognize yourselves for slaves in whom the thoughts are put in ward with their bodies, and their hearts manacled with their hands:  and then at least also, for shame, if you refuse to believe that ever there were men who gave their souls to God,—­know and confess how surely there are those who sell them to His adversary.