I am extremely sorry if any words of mine have tended to intensify any dissatisfaction you may feel with your work in life.... When work is good in its object, as merchant’s work must be, is it not pretty sure that a good man, whose path has led him straight into the thick of it, seeing its abuses and temptations, has a distinct calling? The difficulties are the foundation of the triumph. The world is all full of them. We grope about, and seem hardly to see our way; but if honestly, moment by moment, we do as much as we see, somehow the place is better for our presence; and in the long years, looking back, we find we have been led on by paths we did not see, towards ends we hardly dreamed of reaching. Some men sit down in their studies, and imagine a world all different, or speculate as to whether, if they turned it all upside down, selfishness would not vanish because comfort had come. We don’t know what this world would be if it were altered; but we do know how God has given it to us; whom He has put near us; where He has called us; what power He has given us.... I do not believe in this God’s earth there can be a place where right is impossible. If it is difficult, the more glory is there in very humbly, very steadily, leading a forlorn hope.... Remember there is a Truth of things, as well as of words. Our words are indeed feeble exponents of Truth; but, whatever fact we meet in life, that is God’s own permitted Fact or Truth, possibly not eternal, but meant for us to accept or to resist; but always to deal with, for which effort He gives strength.
RIGHT ACTION POSSIBLE EVERYWHERE
June 4th, 1890.
To Mr. Sydney Cockerell.
Thank you for reminding me about the Brier Rose. Six of us have been to see it at different times, all thanks to you. The colour is, indeed, wonderful, and the vision complete; and, if there is wanting a certain strenuous life about it, it is unfair, perhaps, to look for that in a fairy tale. As allegory, I seem to miss the energy of life and thought; but, then, the beauty of colour!
June 27th, 1890.
To Sydney Cockerell.
I enclose tickets for the opening of the lawn. I send those for Fawcett House for Mrs. Cockerell and Olive. They would there see the general view of things, and the Royal party would pass quite close.... I most earnestly hope that you will be able to help us as steward; we shall sorely need reliable ones. I am much distressed that, in spite of almost superhuman efforts, I seem unable to escape being taken up by the necessity of “receiving,” and so shall not be free to rush where need may be to see how all goes, and so shall need much to have really trustworthy fellow-workers, who will stay where they are asked, and can be trusted really to give signals to those who have to perform any part of the little ceremony.
June 20th, 1890.
To her Mother.