Howard Pyle, a chronicle by Charles D. Abbott, with an introduction by N. C. Wyeth and many illustrations from Howard Pyle's works.

PHILOSOPHER AND MYSTIC
husks. I can imagine poor Nevil awaking 'in the other world
and with what anguish he would discover that in his effort
to do right he had committed the seven-fold sin of striving
to snatch God's scepter from His hand, and of and by his
own wisdom, to judge betwixt right and wrong-that impossible task that we all endeavor to accomplish. If he
could only have been less wise or more wise how easily all
might have been solved! If he had had the wisdom of the
world to sturdily assert, 'All hair-splitting is stuff and nonsense! I love you and you love me and what use can there
be in making ourselves miserable about it,' would the poor
weak woman not have leaned upon his strength? If he
could have asserted that higher wisdom (with truth from
his soul), 'The past is God's; the future is God's and God's
purposes can only be fulfilled in the union of our love,' how
she would have clung to him. As it was he stood neither
with his feet on the earth nor with his head in the Heavens
but falling into the chaos of uncertainties dragged the poor
girl with him.
"Did you ever try to solve that paradoxical truth that
those who strive so hard to do the right thing insist upon
making their own lives and the lives of those dearest to
them so uncomfortable? Is it not that they are passing from
the wholesome flower of natural love to the wholesome point
of celestial love through the distasteful sourness of a spiritual change?
"Sometimes of late it has happened that a vivid flash of
real truth has for a moment lit up the smoky murkiness of
my self-desired intelligence. One such flash of God's lightning came to me lately and it seems to light up this story
of yours. As nearly as I can word it it is this-The King['791