Page:Last Will and Testament of Cecil Rhodes.djvu/99

Rh the importance of having an aim in life sufficiently lofty to justify your spending your life in endeavouring to reach it. He went back to Africa wondering what his aim in life should be, knowing only one thing: that whatever it was, he had not found it. For him that supreme ideal was still to seek. So he fell a-thinking. The object to which most of those who surrounded him eagerly dedicated their lives was the pursuit of wealth. For that they were ready to sacrifice all. Was it worth it? Did the end, even when attained, justify the expenditure of one’s life? To answer that question he looked at the men who had succeeded, who had made their pile, who had attained the goal which he was proposing he should make his own. What he saw was men who, with hardly an exception, did not know what use to make of the wealth they had spent their lives in acquiring. They had encumbered themselves with money-bags, and they spent all their time in taking care of them. Other object in life they seemed to have none. Wealth, for which they had given the best years of their life, was only a care, not a joy—a source of anxiety, not a sceptre of power. “If that is all, it is not good enough,” thought Rhodes.

Then his thoughts turned to politics. Why not devote his life to the achievement of a political career? He might succeed if he tried. Rhodes seldom doubts his capacity to succeed when he tries. Again he looked at the ultimate. In South Africa the top of the tree was represented by the Cape Premiership. What kind of men are Cape Premiers? He had known some of them. They were men who had alternate spells of office and opposition. Most of them were mediocrities; few of them had power, even when they held place. They were dependent for their political existence upon the goodwill of followers whom they had to wheedle or cajole. The position did not seem enviable; so once more Rhodes decided “it was not good enough.” ‘The true goal was still to seek.

His mind turned to religion. Was there to be found in the Churches a goal worth the devotion of a life? Perhaps—if