The Captives

by

Hugh Walpole

TO
ARNOLD BENNETT
WITH DEEP AFFECTION

"I confess that I do not see why the very existence of an invisibleworld may not in part depend on the personal response which any of usmay make to the religious appeal. God Himself, in short, may draw vitalstrength and increase of very being from our fidelity. For my own partI do not know what the sweat and blood and tragedy of this life mean,if they mean anything short of this. If this life be not a real fight,in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, itis no better than a game of private theatricals from which one maywithdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight—as if there weresomething really wild in the universe which we, with all our idealitiesand faithlessness, are needed to redeem; and first of all to redeem ourown hearts from atheisms and fears ..."

WILLIAM JAMES.

CONTENTS

PART I: BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY

PART II: THE CHARIOT OF FIRE