CHAPTER XI 

 BLOSSOMS 



T occurs to me every now and then 

 whilst writing these " reflections " 

 that some of them may possibly 

 hurt the feelings of, offend, or be 

 deplored by some of my friends whose views of 

 humanity and its destiny, of life with its ethics 

 and morals, and of the relative positions of re- 

 ligion and evolution differ from mine. In such 

 matters, however, if I set down anything at all, 

 and I have proposed myself to indite whatever 

 reflections suggest themselves to my mind, I must 

 say truthfully what I think. 



The militant missionary spirit is not in me and 

 I am neither seeking to make converts nor to dis- 

 turb the faith that is in any one, but I give way to 

 none in the recognition of the incalculable benefit, 

 sometimes to the individual and always to the 

 race, of striving after an ideal. The particular 

 in 



