What is Life? 139 



charge. They are in the still, small voices 

 of the inner life of man. The shriek of shells 

 and the shout of hosts are but their sequence. 



Search for the hour of the birth of modern 

 civilization, even in its material aspects, and 

 it will be found in the silence of a lonely 

 room, where a solitary man sat watching the 

 lid of a tea-kettle rise and fall. From that 

 hour flowed the history of a century of pro- 

 gress—the wonders of the age of steam. 



These hours of stillness and light are the 

 secret sources of the wealth of life. No man 

 who is without them can live or maintain his 



sanity. 



A Western train on which I was travelling 

 one day suddenly shot forward at breakneck 

 speed. Around dangerous curves we plunged, 

 dashing the passengers from side to side. 

 On past a station we swept, through an 

 excited village, and disappeared in a cloud 

 of dust. No signal to stop was heeded in the 

 engine's cab. At last the conductor crawled 



