NOTE H.
Had Jesus lived to reach mature years (which,
fortunately for the race, he did not—as we now
have the young, and therefore hopeful, Jesus) we
should probably have seen the same change at
work which is generally so evident in the later
periods of the lives of great thinkers; the change
from an optimistic to a more pessimistic view of
things. In fact, in a measure, we do see it: that
is to say, we see the marked change between the
Jesus of Galilee and the Jesus of Jerusalem. During
that last memorable visit to Jerusalem, the friction
with the official red-tape world of the period was
producing irritation in his mind and consequent
violence in his utterance: and it is quite possible
that, had he lived many years longer, his view of
life would have changed—and the whole world's
history would then have been different. In a deeper
than the orthodox sense it was his death—his early
death—which secured his apparent victory.
