a tooth-comb, but I cannot find the place where Christ told his followers to be defeatist. He told them to preach the good news: that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand; which presumably was intended to mean that evil could be, and was being, overcome. I mention this, not because I take the Gospels literally; for wonderful though they are, they are only the myth which a gigantic man left behind him. I mention this because the impression left on his hearers was that they were to have courage, and to fear nothing; not even evil. This is the legitimate use of the Gospels; not to take phrases out of context and analyse them with over-much scholarship, but to rely on them as recording accurately the impression this man left on his followers. It does not take much imagination to see the scorn he would have for any follower in any age, who admitted defeat without a struggle.

How is a man therefore to start to believe that any corruption of consciousness in himself can be overcome? He could do worse than pray to God for it, as I said. But what is the next step that he must take to express his new belief that he really can see?