168 NATURE'S IDEAL 



describe it as accurately as I can. I had a curious 

 sense of being literally in love with the world. 

 There is no other way in which I can express what I 

 then felt. I felt as if I could hardly contain myself 

 for the love which was bursting within me. It 

 seemed to me as if the world itself were nothing but 

 love: We have all felt on some great occasion an 

 ardent glow of patriotism. This was patriotism ex- 

 tended to the whole Universe. The country for 

 which I was feeling this overwhelming intensity of 

 love was the entire Universe. At the back and 

 foundation of things I was certain was love — and 

 not merely placid benevolence, but active, fervent, 

 devoted love and nothing less. The whole world 

 seemed in a blaze of love, and men's hearts were 

 burning to be in touch with one another. 



It was a remarkable experience I had on that 

 evening. And it was not merely a passing roseate 

 flush due to my being in high spirits, such as a 

 man feels who has had a good breakfast or has 

 heard that his investments have paid a big dividend. 

 I am not sure that I was at the moment in what are 

 usually called high spirits. What I felt was more of 

 the nature of a deep inner soul-satisfaction. And 

 what I saw amounted to this — ^that evil is the super- 

 ficial, goodness the fundamental characteristic of the 

 world ; affection and not animosity the root dis- 

 position of men towards one another. Men are in- 

 herently good not inherently wicked, though they 

 have an uphill fight of it to find scope and room for 

 their goodness to declare itself, and though they are 

 placed in hard conditions and want every help they 

 can to bring their goodness out. Fundamentally 



