- tered a warm atmosphere. A man's doubts
at first seem large enough to freeze his faith, but let him go steadily onward into the warm atmosphere of Christian love, and gradually his doubts will no more impede his progress than the ice-floes impede an ocean-liner.
(817)
DOURNESS
If I could present the picture of a Scotch
Highland cow, with her calf by her side,
watching the approach of a tourist whom she
thinks is coming too near—could I depict
the expression of her face; that, I would say,
would fairly represent what is meant by
"dour." Not that the cow would take the
aggressive, but, if interfered with, I'll warrant
she would not be the one permanently
injured. Led by this trait a certain Scotchman
always stood up during prayers when
others were kneeling, and sat down when
others stood to sing, because, as he exprest
it, the ordinary method was the only one
used by the English and he wasn't going to
do as they did.—John Watson.
(818)
DOWN GRADE, THE
The terrible crimes and miseries of the
East End of London have recently been
brought into great prominence, and one of
the most distressing features of this subject
is that considerable numbers of these appallingly
miserable characters were once respectable
and happy. They were the children
of honorable parents, they were trained
in schools and sanctuaries, they were members
of rich and influential circles; then they
chose the down grade; they were first guilty
of unbecomingness, then of acts of graver
misconduct; at length their friends lost sight
of them, they lost sight of their friends;
then ever lower lodging-houses, lower gin-*shops,
lower pawnshops, until at last those
who had been tenderly nursed, educated in
universities, clothed in scarlet, were submerged
in filth, crime, misery, simply unutterable.
All this dire catastrophe once
seemed impossible to them, as now it seems
impossible to us; but forget not that the
doubtful ever passes into the bad, the bad
into the worse, the worse into the unspeakable.—W.
L. Watkinson, "The Transfigured
Sackcloth."
(819)
DREAM, VALUE OF THE
A pillow-dream is a night adventure of
your subconscious self. You wander without
volition in a weird world and come back
with a tantalized and fleeting recollection of
fantastic persons and impossible situations.
The metaphysical mystery of this sort of
dreams has never been cleared, but it is certain
that the fruits gathered in these sunless
excursions are of doubtful flavor and
quickly perishable. Fortunately, we are
capable of dreams which are not pillow-dreams—dreams
which are best dreamed
when the spine is vertical and every fiber
of mind, soul, and heart vibrant and vital.
On these occasions we are in the clasp of
our best mood—the mood of concept and
creation. The wine of this mood is red like
blood and the resultant intoxication is the
holiest experience of which we are capable.
In its high hours the soul is never maudlin
or fuddled; it grips life strongly and deals
with it in divine fashion, whipping its fugitive
elements into orderly submission, compelling
them to assume a useful steadiness
like that of the dependable planets which can
be found nightly at a given point in the
heavens.—Metropolitan Magazine.
(820)
DREAMS
("Behold, this dreamer cometh")
They stript me bare and left me by the way
To pine forsaken in a lonely land;
They gave me to night-frosts and burning day
To griefs none understand.
They took my silver from me and my gold,
The changing splendors of my rich array;
Night's silver rain of dew escaped their hold,
And the fine gold of day.
On the world's highway in vain pomp they tread;
By paths unknown I stray and hidden streams;
They took all else and left me there for dead;
They could not take my dreams.
Still, morning comes with marvel as of old;
Still in soft rose descends the eventide;
Still in the castle of my heart, grown bold,
The sweet, swift thoughts abide.
Pass by, pass by, O clamorous folk and wild!
To this last fortress of the soul I cling;
Men gave me winter weather from a child,
But God has given me spring. (Text.)
—Robin Flower, The London Spectator.
(821)
See Fulfilment Disappointing; Ideals.
