“Yes,” said Father Payne, “on the side of resistance to evil, I admit; but you can fight without banging and smashing things, as the dam fights the reservoir by silent cohesion.  There is a temptation, from which some people suffer, to think that one can’t be fighting for God at all, unless one is doing it furiously, and all the time, and successfully, and on a large and impressive scale.  That is a fatal blunder.  To hide your adversary’s sword is often a very good way of fighting.  To have an open tussle often makes the bystanders sympathise with the assailant.  It is really a far more civilised thing, and often stands for a higher degree of force and honour, to be able to bear contradiction not ignobly.  Direct conflict is a mistake, as a rule—­blaming, fault-finding, censuring, snapping, punishing.  The point is to put all your energy into your own life and work, and make it outweigh the energy of the combative critic.  Do not fight by destroying faulty opinion, but by creating better opinion.  You fight darkness by lighting a candle, not by waving a fan to clear it away.  Look at one of the things we have been talking about—­bullying in schools.  That has not been conquered by expelling or whipping boys, or preaching about it—­it has been abolished by kindlier and gentler family life, by humaner school-masters living with and among their boys, till the happiness of more peaceful relations all round has been instinctively perceived.”

“But isn’t it right to show up mean and dishonest people, to turn the light of publicity upon cruel and detestable things?” said Vincent.

“Exactly, my dear Vincent,” said Father Payne; “but you can’t turn the light of publicity on evil unless the light is there to turn.  The reason why bullying continued was because people believed in it as inseparable from school life, and even, on the whole, bracing.  What has got rid of it is a kinder and more tender spirit outside.  I don’t object to showing up bad things at all.  By all means put them, if you can, in a clear light, and show their ugliness.  Show your shame and disgust if you like, but do not condescend to personal abuse.  That only weakens your case, because it merely proves that you have still some of the bully left in you.  Be peaceable writers, my dear boys,” said Father Payne, expanding in a large smile.  “Don’t squabble, don’t try to scathe, don’t be affronted!  If your critic reveals a weak place in your work, admit it, and do better!  I want to turn you out peace-makers, and that needs as much energy and restraint as any other sort of fighting.  Don’t make the fact that your opponent may be a cad into a personal grievance.  Make your own idea clear, stick to it, repeat it, say it again in a more attractive way.  Don’t you see that not yielding to a bad impulse is fighting?  The positive assertion of good, the shaping of beauty, the presentment of a fruitful thought in so desirable a light that other people go down with fresh courage