How impossible, he reflected, it would
have been for him to do this, if he had remained surrounded by people
like his father and mother, or Pryer and Pryer's friends, and his rector.
He had been observing, reflecting, and assimilating all these months with
no more consciousness of mental growth than a school-boy has of growth of
body, but should he have been able to admit his growth to himself, and to
act up to his increased strength if he had remained in constant close
connection with people who assured him solemnly that he was under a
hallucination? The combination against him was greater than his unaided
strength could have broken through, and he felt doubtful how far any
shock less severe than the one from which he was suffering would have
sufficed to free him.
CHAPTER LXV
As he lay on his bed day after day slowly recovering he woke up to the
fact which most men arrive at sooner or later, I mean that very few care
two straws about truth, or have any confidence that it is righter and
better to believe what is true than what is untrue, even though belief in
the untruth may seem at first sight most expedient. Yet it is only these
few who can be said to believe anything at all; the rest are simply
unbelievers in disguise.
Pages:
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480