LETTER 63 SIT SPLENDOR' 1. I FIND it wholly impossible to crush into one Fors what I have been gathering of Bible lesson, natural history lesson, and writing lesson, and to leave room enough for what I have to give of immediate explanation to the Companions, now daily increasing in number. My readers must bear with me I cannot do more than I am doing, though every day I wonder more at there being so many things apparently my duty to do, while I have only two feeble hands for all of them. But this much of general statement of the meaning of our Companionship is now absolutely necessary. Of course, the first natural idea taken up by persons who merely hear talk, or read newspapers, about the Company, is that their domain is intended for a refuge for the persons who join it-that within its walls the poor are at once to be made rich, and the sorrowful happy. Alas, this is not by any means the notion of the St. George's Company. It is to be a band of delivering knights -not of churls needing deliverance; of eager givers and servants-not of eager beggars,* and persons needing service. It is only the Rich, and the Strong, whom I receive for Companions, those who come not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Rich, yet some of them in other kind of riches than the world's; strong, yet some in other than the world's strength. But this much at least of literal wealth * See note at end of this letter [p. 555]. 1 [Psalms xc. 17: see below, § 4, and above, Letter 58, § 14. "Rogues' Paradise" (see below, § 8) and "My Aunt Jessie" (see below, § 11) were rejected titles.] 2 [Matthew xx. 28.] and strength they must have,-the power, and formed habit, of self-support. I accept no Companion by whom I am not convinced that the Society will be aided rather than burdened; and although I value intelligence, resolution, and personal strength, more than any other riches, I hope to find, in a little while, that there are people in the world who can hold money without being blinded, by their possession of it, to justice or duty. 2. The Companions whom I accept will be divided, according to their means and circumstances, into three classes. The first and highest class will be called "Comites Ministrantes," "Companions Servant." It will be composed of the few who devote their main energy to the work of the Company; and who, as I do myself, and as the Master must always, pursue their private avocations only in subjection to its interests, being at the same time in positions absolutely independent, and openly shown to be so. The second, or middle class, will be called "Comites Militantes," "Companions Militant." These will be persons occupied actually in manual labour on the ground, or in any work which the Master may order, for the fulfilment of the Society's functions; being dependent on such labour for their maintenance, under the conditions fixed by the Company's statutes. The third and lowest order will be called "Comites Consilii" (Friends of, or in, Council), "Companions Consular," who will form the general body of the Society, being occupied in their own affairs as earnestly as before they joined it; but giving it the tenth of their income; and in all points, involving its principles, obeying the orders of the Master. Thus almost any tradesman may continue his trade, being a Companion; but, if a jeweller, he must not sell false jewels; or if a butcher (I have one accepted already,' and I very much want to get a butcher's daughter, if I could; but she won't come), must not sell bad meat. [The Companion in question, though the son of a butcher, was himself a stock. broker.] I at first meant them to be called "Censors," or "Companions Estimant," because when the Society comes into real work, the sentences of fine, or other disgrace, pronounced by the marshals' officers, and the general modes of determining quality and value of goods, must be always ratified by majority of this order of the Companions, in whom also, by virtue of their number, the election, and therefore censorship, of the Master, will necessarily be vested. 3. To these last, especially, I have now some special matters to write. 2 Will you please look back to the Fors of December 24th, last year,' § 15, and tell me, or rather, which is chiefly needful, answer to yourselves, how far you have reflected, since reading it, on the nature of "unfruitful works of darkness"; how many you have abandoned, and how many reproved. It is too probable that you have not, even yet, the slightest idea what works of darkness are. You know, they can't mean merely murder, or adultery, or theft. You don't, when you go to church, mean to pray that you may have grace to give up committing murder or adultery, or that you may "rather reprove them"? But what then is it that you pray to give up? If you don't know, are you not, yet, in the least, ashamed of yourselves, for going every Sunday, if not every day, to pray to God, without having the dimmest idea what you mean to ask Him for? 2 Well, not to be farther teasing about it,-in the first and simple sense, works of darkness are useless, or ill-done, or half-done, things, which pretend to be good, or to be wholly done; and so mislead or betray. In the deeper and final sense, a work of darkness is one that seeks concealment, and conceals facts; or even casts disdain and disgrace on facts. 4. A work of light is one that seeks light, and that, not 1 [Not last year, but the year before last, Letter 48 (p. 215).] 66 for its own sake, but to light all men; so that all workers of good work delight in witnesses; only with true desire that the witnesses' pleasure may be greater than theirs ; and that the Eternal witnesses-the Cloud around us, and Powers above-may have chief pleasure of all:-(see on this matter, Eagle's Nest, § 53'). So that, of these works, what was written of St. Bernard must be always true, Opera sancti Patris velut Sol in conspectu Dei;" for indeed they are a true Light of the world, infinitely better in the Creator's sight than its dead sunshine; and the discovery by modern science that all mortal strength is from the Sun, while it has thrown foolish persons into atheism, is, to wise ones, the most precious testimony to their faith yet given by physical nature; for it gives us the arithmetical and measurable assurance that men vitally active are living sunshine, having the roots of their souls set in sunlight, as the roots of a tree are in the earth; not that the dust is therefore the God of the tree, but the Tree is the animation of the dust, and the living Soul, of the sunshine. And now you will understand the meaning of the words on our St. George's wealth,-"Sit splendor."" And you must take care that your works do shine before men, as it may be, as a lamp; but at least, as a shield;nay, if your Captain in Heaven wills it, as a sword. 5. For the failure of all good people nowadays is that, associating politely with wicked persons, countenancing them in their wickedness, and often joining in it, they think to avert its consequences by collaterally labouring to repair the ruin it has caused; and while, in the morning, they satisfy their hearts by ministering to the wants of two or three destitute persons, in the evening they dine with, envy, and prepare themselves to follow the example of, the rich 1 [Vol. XXII. p. 159.] The passage from "what was written of St. Bernard" down to "living sunshine" is repeated, with some alterations, in Deucalion, i. ch. vii. § 32 (Vol. XXVI. p. 183).] [The title to this letter: and see Letter 58, § 14 (p. 430).] speculator who has caused the destitution of two or three thousand. They are thus destroying more in hours than they can amend in years; or, at the best, vainly feeding the famine-struck populations, in the rear of a devouring army, always on the increase in mass of numbers, and rapidity of march. Now I call on the St. George's Company, first, to separate themselves clearly, as a body, from persons who practise recognized, visible, unquestionable iniquity.' They are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of Darkness; but to walk as Children of Light.2 Literally, observe. Those phrases of the Bible are entirely evaded, because we never apply them to immediate practice. St. George's Companions are to have no fellowship with works of darkness; no companionship whatsoever with recognizable mischief, or mischievous men. Of every person of your acquaintance, you are solemnly to ask yourselves, "Is this man a swindler, a liar, a gambler, an adulterer, a selfish oppressor, and task-master?" 6. Don't suppose you can't tell. You can tell with perfect ease; or, if you meet any mysterious personage of whom it proves difficult to ascertain whether he be rogue or not, keep clear of him till you know. With those whom you know to be honest, know to be innocent, know to be striving, with main purpose, to serve mankind and honour their God, you are humbly and lovingly to associate yourselves and with none others. "You don't like to set yourselves up for being better than other people? You dare not judge harshly of your fellow-creatures?" I do not tell you to judge them. I only tell you not to dine with them, and not to deal with them. That they lose the pleasure of your company, or the profit on your 1 [On this point, see Ruskin's Abstract of the Objects and Constitution of St. George's Guild, § 1 (Vol. XXX.).] 2 [Ephesians v. 8.] |