278 STRAY- AW AYS 



sea, but only for one lightest whisper, one least sign 

 that he who had gone over the Border was liimself, 

 that he had not forgotten, would not forget. 



There are many things that do not admit, or are not 

 capable of, exact proof. The certainty of the facts 

 of any religion is one of them ; the identity of the 

 sender of any message is another. In these things, 

 or rather in the acceptance of them, acts of faith are 

 necessarily involved. One does not expect that the 

 letter, signed with a friend's name, written in his 

 handwriting, saturated with his personality, is a 

 forgery, yet such forgeries have been successful. 

 But is it possible to believe in a long succession of 

 forgeries, of daily forgeries full of messages, of dis- 

 cussions, of suggestions, descriptions, and reminis- 

 cences, all steeped in the personal idiom of the writer, 

 all instinct with the individuality of the friend who 

 has go^e away? There are very many such cases. 

 It seems to me that accumulated testimony of this 

 kind, though it may be, and generally is, incapable 

 of absolute proof, gives a sense of certainty that 

 cannot be shaken, even though its appeal is purely 

 individual and is incapable of bringing conviction 

 to the world at large. The personal equation comes 

 in. The credibility of the witness has to be decided 

 upon. He affirms, he knows, by a hundred tokens, 

 that the letter is from his friend. Let the Counsel 

 for the Prosecution shake him if he can. He may 

 discredit him, but he cannot dethrone his inner 

 conviction, and, after all, that is what mainly matters. 

 Let us help the world as far as we may ; if it will not 

 accept our message, so much the worse for the world. 



Probably very many of those who read this have 

 proved for themselves all and more than has been 

 said here, have known what it was to have found, in 

 darkness, a beloved hand in theirs again, to have 



