94 March Intellectual Sowing. 



icebergs as trust any living thought to the deadly cold- 

 ness of the world, and yet a few years later this same 

 world will be no longer an iceberg but good earth wait- 

 ing for the seed. We all of us know the parable of 

 the sower, how 'the sower soweth the word' by the 

 wayside, and on stony ground, and amongst thorns, 

 and finally on good ground also. That is the way the 

 preacher sows his doctrine, and in every age from the day 

 when that parable was first spoken the preacher has had 

 exactly those chances of success. But it is not quite the 

 same in the intellectual sphere, for here the soil itself all 

 changes together, and in one age it will be all stones or 

 thorns, whilst in another it will be good ground ready 

 for the reception of great thoughts or astonishing 

 discoveries. And whatever may be the faults of the 

 age in which we live, whatever may be the crudeness, 

 rawness, uncouthness, of our half-developed industrial 

 system with the unpleasant forms of human life which 

 it has made discouragingly conspicuous, one thing at 

 least may be boldly advanced in defence of it ; namely, 

 that it is incomparably more favorable than any age 

 that has preceded it to the sowing of the seeds of 

 knowledge. 



There is an old peasant near the Val Ste. Veronique 

 whom I like to see especially at this time of the year. 

 He is very tall and thin, with large bones, and a white 

 head carried high with natural dignity. When he walks 

 steadily along the furrow, casting the seed with that 

 regular motion of the hand and arm which comes from 

 years of practice, I look at him and think that, of all the 



