85

No!  It will come! it will assuredly come! the time of the perfecting, when man, the more convinced his understanding feels itself of an ever better Future, will nevertheless not be necessitated to borrow motives of action from this Future; for he will do the Right because it is right, not because arbitrary rewards are annexed thereto, which formerly were intended simply to fix and strengthen his unsteady gaze in recognising the inner, better, rewards of well-doing.

86

It will assuredly come! the time of a new eternal Gospel, which is promised us in the Primer of the New Testament itself!

87

Perhaps even some enthusiasts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had caught a glimpse of a beam of this new eternal Gospel, and only erred in that they predicted its outburst at so near to their own time.

88

Perhaps their “Three Ages of the World” were not so empty a speculation after all, and assuredly they had no contemptible views when they taught that the New Covenant must become as much antiquated as the old has been.  There remained by them the similarity of the economy of the same God.  Ever, to let them speak my words, ever the self-same plan of the Education of the Race.

89

Only they were premature.  Only they believed that they could make their contemporaries, who had scarcely outgrown their childhood, without enlightenment, without preparation, men worthy of their Third Age.

90

And it was just this which made them enthusiasts.  The enthusiast often casts true glances into the future, but for this future he cannot wait.  He wishes this future accelerated, and accelerated through him.  That for which nature takes thousands of years is to mature itself in the moment of his existence.  For what possession has he in it if that which he recognises as the Best does not become the best in his lifetime?  Does he come back?  Does he expect to come back?  Marvellous only that this enthusiastic expectation does not become more the fashion among enthusiasts. 91

Go thine inscrutable way, Eternal Providence!  Only let me not despair in Thee, because of this inscrutableness.  Let me not despair in Thee, even if Thy steps appear to me to be going back.  It is not true that the shortest line is always straight.

92

Thou hast on Thine Eternal Way so much to carry on together, so much to do!  So many aside steps to take!  And what if it were as good as proved that the vast flow wheel which brings mankind nearer to this perfection is only put in motion by smaller, swifter wheels, each of which contributes its own individual unit thereto?

93

It is so!  The very same Way by which the Race reaches its perfection, must every individual man—­one sooner—­another later—­ have travelled over.  Have travelled over in one and the same life?  Can he have been, in one and the self-same life, a sensual Jew and a spiritual Christian?  Can he in the self-same life have overtaken both?