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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: strong man homologous in his sphere with the under-witted saint,
is the bully of the slums, the hooligan or rowdy. Surely on this
level also the saint preserves a certain superiority.
How is success to be absolutely measured when there are so many
environments and so many ways of looking at the adaptation? It
cannot be measured absolutely; the verdict will vary according to
the point of view adopted. From the biological point of view
Saint Paul was a failure, because he was beheaded. Yet he was
magnificently adapted to the larger environment of history; and
so far as any saint's example is a leaven of righteousness in the
world, and draws it in the direction of more prevalent habits of
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