172 ESSAYS AND LETTEIIS
truth — a diffusion accomplislied by very diverse metliods : by trade, and conquest, and travel, and books, and rail^oad^5, and telegraphs, and in many other ways, some of uhicli, such as conquest, I have to repudiate, hut others, sucli as hooks and means of ra|)id communication, I have no cause to repudiate, and cannot (unless I wish to doi)rive myself of a con- venient means of serving: God) refuse to utilize. As to your arii-ument that to produce books and railroads people liave to burrow undertrround for ore and to work at a furnace, why — all that has to be done before one can have even a plouj,^hsbare, or spade, or a scythe. And there is nothiii;!^ l>ad in burrowing under- ground for ore, or workini,^ at a furnace ; ami wlien I was young I would willingly have burrowed under- ground or worked at a furnace, to show my spirit, and so would any good young fellow to-day, provided the work were not compulsory, nor for life, an<l were sur- rounded by all the conveniences which will certainly be devised as soon as everyone is expected to work, and the labour is not put on wage-slaves only.
But let us not pursue this sul)ject ; only believe me that if I write to you thus, 1 do it neitlier because I have written many books and still write them — I most heartily agree with you, that the very simplest good life is more precious than the most beautiful of books — nor because thanks to books I come into touch with other men — as happened this autumn with a Hindu who fully shares our Christian outlook (and who has sent me an English book by a lady, his compatriot, explaining the teachings of the Brahmans in conformity with the essentials of Christ's teaching), and again with some Japs who profess and teach a quite Christian morality, and two of wdiom visited me a few days ago. Not by these things am I withheld from agreeing with you, and from condemning book-printing, railroads, telephones, and other such things — but because when 1 see an ant-hill in the meadow I cannot admit that the ants have been mistaken in constructing that hill, and doing all they are doing in it. And in the same w'ay.
