VIRILE SENTIMENT 109 



the tide recede. He bade the immutable processes of 

 Nature that determine how and when and to what 

 extent the tides shall rise and fall to cease. But no 

 decree of man or king can alter by the fraction of an 

 inch the rising of the tides. It would be well if we 

 recognised that human life is controlled and deter- 

 mined by processes that are as immutable and as 

 merciless as those which govern the tides or determine 

 the movements of the planets. We can learn to 

 understand them and to obey them, but we cannot 

 destroy or diminish them. 



Unfortunately there exists to-day a Canute who 

 is not traditional, but figurative. We may regard 

 him as the symbolic emblem of modern sentiment. 

 He sits upon the sea-shore of current deeds, and, 

 looking forth upon the rising events of Futurity, 

 demands that they shall cease to rise ! The hour of 

 his disillusionment is not far off ; it is nearer than he 

 imagines, for the shore upon which he sits shelves less 

 than he believes. By not the fraction of a second 

 will the. tide of Nature's processes be delayed or 

 hastened in its rise upon the Future of the Nation. 



What we sowed yesterday is to-day germinating, 

 and will be reaped to-morrow. There is time, even 

 now, to dig up the sprouting tares before their harvest 

 shall have destroyed the wheat. Who, with hoe 

 and rake in hand, will go forth and lead the way ? 

 Will the natural rulers of the Nation, the Aristocracy, 

 do it, or must the more vigorous and virile of the 

 Intellectual Classes — the Upper Middle Strata of 

 Society — ignoring its poetically aesthetical section, 

 usurp their position and discharge their functions ? 



