,,wisdom ,,and ,,destiny ,by ,,maurice ,,maeterlinck ,translated by ,,alfred ,,sutro ,,to ,,georgette ,,leblanc ,i ,,offer ,,this ,,book1 ,,wherein ,,her ,,thought ,,blends ,,with ,,mine ,,introduction ,this essay on ,wisdom and ,destiny was to have been a thing of some twenty pages1 the work of a fortnight2 but the idea took root1 others flocked to it1 and the volume has occupied ,m4 ,maeterlinck continuously for more than two years4 ,it has much essential kinship with the ,treasure of the ,humble1 though it differs therefrom in treatment2 for whereas the earlier work might perhaps be described as the eager speculation of a poet athirst for beauty1 we have here rather the endeavour of an earnest thinker to discover the abode of truth4 ,and if the result of his thought be that truth and happiness are one1 this was by no means the object wherewith he set forth4 ,here he is no longer content with exquisite visions1 alluring or haunting images2 he probes into the soul of man and lays bare all his joys and his sorrows4 ,it is as though he had forsaken the canals he loves so well--the green1 calm1 motionless canals that faithfully mirror the silent trees and moss-covered roofs--and had adventured boldly1 unhesitatingly1 on the broad river of life4 ,he describes this book himself1 in a kind of introduction that is almost an apology1 as a few interrupted thoughts that entwine themselves1 with more or less system1 around two or three subjects4 ,he declares that there is nothing it undertakes to prove2 that there are none whose mission it is to convince4 ,and so true is this1 so absolutely honest and sincere is the writer1 that he does not shrink from attacking1 qualifying1 modifying1 his own propositions2 from advancing1 and insisting on1 every objection that flits across his brain2 and if such proposition survive the onslaught of its adversaries1 it is only because1 in the deepest of him1 he holds it for absolute truth4 ,for this book is indeed a confession1 a naive1 outspoken1 unflinching description of all that passes in his mind2 and even those who like not his theories still must admit that this mind is strangely beautiful4 ,there have been many columns filled--and doubtless will be again--with ingenious and scholarly attempts to place a definitive label on ,m4 ,maeterlinck1 and his talent2 to trace his thoughts to their origin1 clearly denoting the authors by whom he has been influenced2 in a measure to predict his future1 and accurately to establish the place that he fills in the hierarchy of genius4 ,with all this ,i feel that ,i have no concern4 ,such speculations doubtless have their use and serve their purpose4 ,i shall be content if ,i can impress upon those who may read these lines1 that in this book the man is himself1 of untrammelled thought2 a man possessed of the rare faculty of seeing beauty in all things1 and1 above all1 in truth2 of the still rarer faculty of loving all things1 and1 above all1 life4 ,nor is this merely a vague and1 at bottom1 a more or less meaningless statement4 ,for1 indeed1 considering this essay only1 that deals with wisdom and destiny1 at the root of it--its fundamental principle1 its guiding1 inspiring thought--is love4 ,nothing is contemptible in this world save only scorn1 he says2 and for the humble1 the foolish1 nay1 even the wicked1 he has the same love1 almost the same admiration1 as for the sage1 the saint1 or the hero4 ,everything that exists fills him with wonder1 because of its existence1 and of the mysterious force that is in it2 and to him love and wisdom are one1 joining hands in a circle of light4 ,for the wisdom that holds aloof from mankind1 that deems itself a thing apart1 select1 superior1 he has scant sympathy--it has wandered too far from the watchfires of the tribe4 ,but the wisdom that is human1 that feeds constantly on the desires1 the feelings1 the hopes and the fears of man1 must needs have love ever by its side2 and these two1 marching together1 must inevitably find themselves1 sooner or later1 on the ways that lead to goodness4 ,there comes a moment in life1 he says1 when moral beauty seems more urgent1 more penetrating1 than intellectual beauty2 when all that the mind has treasured must be bathed in the greatness of soul1 lest it perish in the sandy desert1 forlorn as the river that seeks in vain for the sea4 ,but for unnecessary self-sacrifice1 renouncement1 abandonment of earthly joys1 and all such parasitic virtues1 he has no commendation or approval2 feeling that man was created to be happy1 and that he is not wise who voluntarily discards a happiness to-day for fear lest it be taken from him on the morrow4 ,let us wait till the hour of sacrifice sounds--till then1 each man to his work4 ,the hour will sound at last--let us not waste our time in seeking it on the dial of life4 ,in this book1 morality1 conduct1 life are ,surveyed from every point of the compass1 but from an eminence always4 ,austerity holds no place in his philosophy2 he finds room even for the hours that babble aloud in their wantonness4 ,but all those who follow him are led by smiling wisdom to the heights where happiness sits enthroned between goodness and love1 where virtue rewards itself in the silence that is the walled garden of its happiness4 ,it is strange to turn from this essay to ,serres ,chaudes and ,la ,princesse ,maleine1 ,m4 ,maeterlinck's earliest efforts--the one a collection of vague images woven into poetical form1 charming1 dreamy1 and almost meaningless2 the other a youthful and very remarkable effort at imitation4 ,in the plays that followed the ,princesse ,maleine there was the same curious1 wandering sense of1 and search for1 a vague and mystic beauty3 ,that fair beauty which no eye can see1 ,of that sweet music which no ear can measure4 ,in a little poem of his1 ,et s'il revenait1 the last words of a dying girl1 forsaken by her lover1 who is asked by her sister what shall be told to the faithless one1 should he ever seek to know of her last hours3 ,et s'il m'interroge encore ,sur la derniere heure8-- ,dites lui que j'ai souri ,de peur qu'il ne pleure 444 touch1 perhaps1 the very high-water mark of exquisite simplicity and tenderness blent with matchless beauty of expression4 ,pelleas et ,melisande was the culminating point of this1 his first1 period--a simple1 pathetic love-story of boy and girl--love that was pure and almost passionless4 ,it was followed by three little plays--for marionettes1 he describes them on the title-page2 among them being ,la ,mort de ,tintagiles1 the play he himself prefers of all that he has written4 ,and then came a curious change3 he wrote ,aglavaine et ,selysette4 ,the setting is familiar to us2 the sea-shore1 the ruined tower1 the seat by the well2 no less than the old grandmother and little ,yssaline4 ,but ,aglavaine herself is strange3 this woman who has lived and suffered2 this queenly1 majestic creature1 calmly conscious of her beauty and her power2 she whose overpowering1 overwhelming love is yet deliberate and thoughtful4 ,the complexities of real life are vaguely hinted at here3 instead of ,golaud1 the mediaeval1 tyrannous husband1 we have ,selysette1 the meek1 self-sacrificing wife2 instead of the instinctive1 unconscious love of ,pelleas and ,melisande1 we have great burning passion4 ,but this play1 too1 was only a stepping-stone--a link between the old method and the new that is to follow4 ,for there will probably be no more plays like ,pelleas et ,melisande1 or even like ,aglavaine et ,selysette4 ,real men and women1 real problems and disturbance of life--it is these that absorb him now4 ,his next play will doubtless deal with a psychology more actual1 in an atmosphere less romantic2 and the old familiar scene of wood1 and garden1 and palace corridor will be exchanged for the habitual abode of men4 ,i have said it was real life that absorbed him now1 and yet am ,i aware that what seems real to him must still appear vague and visionary to many4 ,it is1 however1 only a question of shifting one's point of view1 or1 better still1 of enlarging it4 ,material success in life1 fame1 wealth--these things ,m4 ,maeterlinck passes indifferently by4 ,there are certain ideals that are dear to many on which he looks with the vague wonder of a child4 ,the happiness of which he dreams is an inward happiness1 and within reach of successful and unsuccessful alike4 ,and so it may well be that those content to buffet with their fellows for what are looked on as the prizes of this world1 will still write him down a mere visionary1 and fail to comprehend him4 ,the materialist who complacently defines the soul as the intellect plus the emotions1 will doubtless turn away in disgust from ,m4 ,maeterlinck's constant references to it as the seat of something mighty1 mysterious1 inexhaustible in life4 ,so1 too1 may the rigid follower of positive religion1 to whom the ,deity is a power concerned only with the judgment1 reward1 and punishment of men1 protest at his saying that ,god1 who must be at least as high as the highest thoughts ,he has implanted in the best of men1 will withhold ,his smile from those whose sole desire has been to please ,him2 and they only who have done good for sake of good1 and as though ,he existed not2 they only who have loved virtue more than they loved ,god ,himself1 shall be allowed to stand by ,his side4 ,but1 after all1 the genuine seeker after truth knows that what seemed true yesterday is to-day discovered to be only a milestone on the road2 and all who value truth will be glad to listen to a man who1 differing from them perhaps1 yet tells them what seems true to him4 ,and whereas in the ,treasure of the ,humble he looked on life through a veil of poetry and dream1 here he stands among his fellow-men1 no longer trying to express the inexpressible1 but1 in all simplicity1 to tell them what he sees4 ,above all1 let us never forget that an act of goodness is in itself an act of happiness4 ,it is the flower of a long inner life of joy and contentment2 it tells of peaceful hours and days on the sunniest heights of our soul4 ,this thought lies at the root of his whole philosophy--goodness1 happiness1 love1 supporting each other1 intertwined1 rewarding each other4 ,let us not think virtue will crumble1 though ,god ,himself seem unjust4 ,where could the virtue of man find more everlasting foundation than in the seeming injustice of ,god8 ,strange that the man who has written these words should have spent all his school life at a ,jesuit college1 subjected to its severe1 semi-monastic discipline2 compelled1 at the end of his stay1 to go1 with the rest of his fellows1 through the customary period of retreat1 lasting ten days1 when the most eloquent of the fathers would1 one after the other1 deliver sermons terrific to boyish imagination1 sermons whose unvarying burden was ,hell and the wrath of ,god--to be avoided only by becoming a ,jesuit priest4 ,out of the eighteen boys in the rhetorique class1 eleven eagerly embraced this chance of escape from damnation4 ,as for ,m4 ,maeterlinck himself--fortunately a day-boarder only--one can fancy him wandering home at night1 along the canal banks1 in the silence broken only by the pealing of church bells1 brooding over these mysteries 444 but how long a road must the man have travelled who1 having been taught the ,god of ,fra ,angelico1 himself arrives at the conception of a ,god who sits smiling on a mountain1 and to whom our gravest offences are only as the naughtiness of puppies playing on the hearth-rug4 ,his environment1 no less than his schooling1 helped to give a mystic tinge to his mind4 ,the peasants who dwelt around his father's house always possessed a peculiar fascination for him2 he would watch them as they sat by their doorway1 squatting on their heels1 as their custom is--grave1 monotonous1 motionless1 the smoke from their pipes almost the sole sign of life4 ,for the ,flemish peasant is a strangely inert creature1 his work once done--as languid and lethargic as the canal that passes by his door4 ,there was one cottage into which the boy would often peep on his way home from school1 the home of seven brothers and one sister1 all old1 toothless1 worn--working together in the daytime at their tiny farm2 at night sitting in the gloomy kitchen1 lit by one smoky lamp--all looking straight before them1 saying not a word2 or when1 at rare intervals1 a remark was made1 taking it up each in turn and solemnly repeating it1 with perhaps the slightest variation in form4 ,it was amidst influences such as these that his boyhood was passed1 almost isolated from the world1 brooding over lives of saints and mystics at the same time that he studied1 and delighted in1 ,shakespeare and the ,elizabethans1 ,goethe and ,heine4 ,for his taste has been catholic always2 he admires ,meredith as he admires ,dickens1 ,hello and ,pascal no less than ,schopenhauer4 ,and it is this catholicity1 this open mind1 this eager search for truth1 that have enabled him to emerge from the mysticism that once enwrapped him to the clearer daylight of actual existence2 it is this faculty of admiring all that is admirable in man and in life that some day1 perhaps1 may take him very far4 ,it will surprise many who picture him as a mere dreamy decadent1 to be told that he is a man of abiding and abundant cheerfulness1 who finds happiness in the simplest of things4 ,the scent of a flower1 the flight of sea-gulls around a cliff1 a cornfield in sunshine--these stir him to strange delight4 ,a deed of bravery1 nobility1 or of simple devotion2 a mere brotherly act of kindness1 the unconscious sacrifice of the peasant who toils all day to feed and clothe his children--these awake his warm and instant sympathy4 ,and with him1 too1 it is as with ,de ,quincey when he says1 ,at no time of my life have ,i been a person to hold myself polluted by the touch or approach of any creature that wore a human shape2 and more than one unhappy outcast1 condemned by the stern law of man1 has been gladdened by his ready greeting and welcome4 ,but1 indeed1 all this may be read of in his book--,i desired but to make it clear that the book is truly a faithful mirror of the man's own thoughts1 and feelings1 and actions4 ,it is a book that many will love--all those who suffer1 for it will lighten their suffering2 all those who love1 for it will teach them to love more deeply4 ,it is a book with its faults1 doubtless1 as every book must be2 but it has been written straight from the heart1 and will go to the heart of many 444 ,alfred ,sutro ,,wisdom ,,and ,,destiny #a4 ,in this book there will often be mention of wisdom and destiny1 of happiness1 justice1 and love4 ,there may seem to be some measure of irony in thus calling forth an intangible happiness where so much real sorrow prevails2 a justice that may well be ideal in the bosom of an injustice1 alas6 only too material2 a love that eludes the grasp in the midst of palpable hatred and callousness4 ,the moment may seem but ill-chosen for leisurely search1 in the hidden recess of man's heart1 for motives of peace and tranquillity2 occasions for gladness1 uplifting1 and love2 reasons for wonder and gratitude--seeing that the vast bulk of mankind1 in whose name we would fain lift our voice1 have not even the time or assurance to drain to the dregs the misery and desolation of life4 ,not to them is it given to linger over the inward rejoicing1 the profound consolation1 that the satisfied thinker has slowly and painfully acquired1 that he knows how to prize4 ,thus has it often been urged against moralists1 among them ,epictetus1 that they were apt to concern themselves with none but the wise alone4 ,in this reproach is some truth1 as some truth there must be in every reproach that is made4 ,and indeed1 if we had only the courage to listen to the simplest1 the nearest1 most pressing voice of our conscience1 and be deaf to all else1 it were doubtless our solitary duty to relieve the suffering about us to the greatest extent in our power4 ,it were incumbent upon us to visit and nurse the poor1 to console the afflicted2 to found model factories1 surgeries1 dispensaries1 or at least to devote ourselves1 as men of science do1 to wresting from nature the material secrets which are most essential to man4 ,but yet1 were the world at a given moment to contain only persons thus actively engaged in helping each other1 and none venturesome enough to dare snatch leisure for research in other directions1 then could this charitable labour not long endure2 for all that is best in the good that at this day is being done round about us1 was conceived in the spirit of one of those who neglected1 it may be1 many an urgent1 immediate duty in order to think1 to commune with themselves1 in order to speak4 ,does it follow that they did the best that was to be done8 ,to such a question as this who shall dare to reply8 ,the soul that is meekly honest must ever consider the simplest1 the nearest duty to be the best of all things it can do2 but yet were there cause for regret had all men for all time restricted themselves to the duty that lay nearest at hand4 ,in each generation some men have existed who held in all loyalty that they fulfilled the duties of the passing hour by pondering on those of the hour to come4 ,most thinkers will say that these men were right4 ,it is well that the thinker should give his thoughts to the world1 though it must be admitted that wisdom befinds itself sometimes in the reverse of the sage's pronouncement4 ,this matters but little1 however2 for1 without such pronouncement1 the wisdom had not stood revealed2 and the sage has accomplished his duty4 #b4 ,to-day misery is the disease of mankind1 as disease is the misery of man4 ,and even as there are physicians for disease1 so should there be physicians for human misery4 ,but can the fact that disease is1 unhappily1 only too prevalent1 render it wrong for us ever to speak of health8 which were indeed as though1 in anatomy--the physical science that has most in common with morals--the teacher confined himself exclusively to the study of the deformities that greater or lesser degeneration will induce in the organs of man4 ,we have surely the right to demand that his theories be based on the healthy and vigorous body2 as we have also the right to demand that the moralist1 who fain would see beyond the present hour1 should take as his standard the soul that is happy1 or that at least possesses every element of happiness1 save only the necessary consciousness4 ,we live in the bosom of great injustice2 but there can be1 ,i imagine1 neither cruelty nor callousness in our speaking1 at times1 as though this injustice had ended1 else should we never emerge from our circle4 ,it is imperative that there should be some who dare speak1 and think1 and act as though all men were happy2 for otherwise1 when the day comes for destiny to throw open to all the people's garden of the promised land1 what happiness shall the others find there1 what justice1 what beauty or love8 ,it may be urged1 it is true1 that it were best1 first of all1 to consider the most pressing needs1 yet is this not always wisest2 it is often of better avail from the start to seek that which is highest4 ,when the waters beleaguer the home of the peasant in ,holland1 the sea or the neighbouring river having swept down the dyke that protected the country1 most pressing is it then for the peasant to safeguard his cattle1 his grain1 his effects2 but wisest to fly to the top of the dyke1 summoning those who live with him1 and from thence meet the flood1 and do battle4 ,humanity up to this day has been like an invalid tossing and turning on his couch in search of repose2 but therefore none the less have words of true consolation come only from those who spoke as though man were freed from all pain4 ,for1 as man was created for health1 so was mankind created for happiness2 and to speak of its misery only1 though that misery be everywhere and seem everlasting1 is only to say words that fall lightly and soon are forgotten4 ,why not speak as though mankind were always on the eve of great certitude1 of great joy8 ,thither1 in truth1 is man led by his instinct1 though he never may live to behold the long-wished-for to-morrow4 ,it is well to believe that there needs but a little more thought1 a little more courage1 more love1 more devotion to life1 a little more eagerness1 one day to fling open wide the portals of joy and of truth4 ,and this thing may still come to pass4 ,let us hope that one day all mankind will be happy and wise2 and though this day never should dawn1 to have hoped for it cannot be wrong4 ,and in any event1 it is helpful to speak of happiness to those who are sad1 that thus at least they may learn what it is that happiness means4 ,they are ever inclined to regard it as something beyond them1 extraordinary1 out of their reach4 ,but if all who may count themselves happy were to tell1 very simply1 what it was that brought happiness to them1 the others would see that between sorrow and joy the difference is but as between a gladsome1 enlightened acceptance of life and a hostile1 gloomy submission2 between a large and harmonious conception of life1 and one that is stubborn and narrow4 ,is that all8 the unhappy would cry4 ,but we too have within us1 then1 the elements of this happiness4 ,surely you have them within you6 ,there lives not a man but has them1 those only excepted upon whom great physical calamity has fallen4 ,but speak not lightly of this happiness4 ,there is no other4 ,he is the happiest man who best understands his happiness2 for he is of all men most fully aware that it is only the lofty idea1 the untiring1 courageous1 human idea1 that separates gladness from sorrow4 ,of this idea it is helpful to speak1 and as often as may be2 not with the view of imposing our own idea upon others1 but in order that they who may listen shall1 little by little1 conceive the desire to possess an idea of their own4 ,for in no two men is it the same4 ,the one that you cherish may well bring no comfort to me2 nor shall all your eloquence touch the hidden springs of my life4 ,needs must ,i acquire my own1 in myself1 by myself2 but you unconsciously make this the easier for me1 by telling of the idea that is yours4 ,it may happen that ,i shall find solace in that which brings sorrow to you1 and that which to you speaks of gladness may be fraught with affliction for me4 ,but no matter2 into my grief will enter all that you saw of beauty and comfort1 and into my joy there will pass all that was great in your sadness1 if indeed my joy be on the same plane as your sadness4 ,it behoves us1 the first thing of all1 to prepare in our soul a place of some loftiness1 where this idea may be lodged2 as the priests of ancient religions laid the mountain peak bare1 and cleared it of thorn and of root for the fire to descend from heaven4 ,there may come to us any day1 from the depths of the planet ,mars1 the infallible formula of happiness1 conveyed in the final truth as to the aim and the government of the universe4 ,such a formula could only bring change or advancement unto our spiritual life in the degree of the desire and expectation of advancement in which we might long have been living4 ,the formula would be the same for all men1 yet would each one benefit only in the proportion of the eagerness1 purity1 unselfishness1 knowledge1 that he had stored up in his soul4 ,all morality1 all study of justice and happiness1 should truly be no more than preparation1 provision on the vastest scale--a way of gaining experience1 a stepping-stone laid down for what is to follow4 ,surely1 desirable day of all days were the one when at last we should live in absolute truth1 in immovable logical certitude2 but in the meantime it is given us to live in a truth more important still1 the truth of our soul and our character2 and some wise men have proved that this life can be lived in the midst of gravest material errors4 #c4 ,is it idle to speak of justice1 happiness1 morals1 and all things connected therewith1 before the hour of science has sounded--that definitive hour1 wherein all that we cling to may crumble8 ,the darkness that hangs over our life will then1 it may be1 pass away2 and much that we do in the darkness shall be otherwise done in the light4 ,but nevertheless do the essential events of our moral and physical life come to pass in the darkness as completely1 as inevitably1 as they would in the light1 ,our life must be lived while we wait for the word that shall solve the enigma1 and the happier1 the nobler our life1 the more vigorous shall it become2 and we shall have the more courage1 clear-sightedness1 boldness1 to seek and desire the truth4 ,and happen what may1 the time can be never ill-spent that we give to acquiring some knowledge of self4 ,whatever our relation may become to this world in which we have being1 in our soul there will yet be more feelings1 more passions1 more secrets unchanged and unchanging1 than there are stars that connect with the earth1 or mysteries fathomed by science4 ,in the bosom of truth undeniable1 truth all absorbing1 man shall doubtless soar upwards2 but still1 as he rises1 still shall his soul unerringly guide him2 and the grander the truth of the universe1 the more solace and peace it may bring1 the more shall the problems of justice1 morality1 happiness1 love1 present to the eyes of all men the semblance they ever have worn in the eyes of the thinker4 ,we should live as though we were always on the eve of the great revelation2 and we should be ready with welcome1 with warmest and keenest and fullest1 most heartfelt and intimate welcome4 ,and whatever the form it shall take on the day that it comes to us1 the best way of all to prepare for its fitting reception is to crave for it now1 to desire it as lofty1 as perfect1 as vast1 as ennobling as the soul can conceive4 ,it must needs be more beautiful1 glorious1 and ample than the best of our hopes2 for1 where it differ therefrom or even frustrate them1 it must of necessity bring something nobler1 loftier1 nearer to the nature of man1 for it will bring us the truth4 ,to man1 though all that he value go under1 the intimate truth of the universe must be wholly1 preeminently admirable4 ,and though1 on the day it unveils1 our meekest desires turn to ashes and float on the wind1 still shall there linger within us all we have prepared2 and the admirable will enter our soul1 the volume of its waters being as the depth of the channel that our expectation has fashioned4 #d4 ,is it necessary that we should conceive ourselves to be superior to the universe8 ,our reason may prove what it will3 our reason is only a feeble ray that has issued from ,nature2 a tiny atom of that whole which ,nature alone shall judge4 ,is it fitting that the ray of light should desire to alter the lamp whence it springs8 ,that loftiness within us1 from whose summit we venture to pass judgment on the totality of life1 to absolve or condemn it1 is doubtless the merest pin-prick1 visible to our eye alone1 on the illimitable sphere of life4 ,it is wise to think and to act as though all that happened to man were all that man most required4 ,it is not long ago--to cite only one of the problems that the instinct of our planet is invited to solve--that a scheme was on foot to inquire of the thinkers of ,europe whether it should rightly be held as a gain or a loss to mankind if an energetic1 strenuous1 persistent race1 which some1 through prejudice doubtless1 still regard as inferior to the ,aryan in qualities of heart and of soul--if the ,jews1 in a word1 were to vanish from the face of the earth1 or to acquire preponderance there4 ,i am satisfied that the sage might answer1 without laying himself open to the charge of indifference or undue resignation1 ,in what comes to pass will be happiness4 ,many things happen that seem unjust to us2 but of all the achievements of reason there has been none so helpful as the discovery of the loftier reason that underlies the misdeeds of nature4 ,it is from the slow and gradual vindication of the unknown force that we deemed at first to be pitiless1 that our moral and physical life has derived its chief prop and support4 ,if a race disappears that conforms with our every ideal1 it will be only because our ideal still falls short of the grand ideal1 which is1 as we have said1 the intimate truth of the universe4 ,our own experience has taught us that even in this world of reality there exist dreams and desires1 thoughts and feelings of beauty1 of justice1 and love1 that are of the noblest and loftiest4 ,and if there be any that shrink from the test of reality--in other words1 from the mysterious1 nameless power of life--it follows that these must be different1 but not that their beauty is less1 or their vastness1 or power to console4 ,till reality confront us1 it is well1 it may be1 to cherish ideals that we hold to surpass it in beauty2 but once face to face with reality1 then must the ideal flame that has fed on our noblest desires be content to throw faithful light on the less fragile1 less tender beauty of the mighty mass that crushes these desires4 ,nor does this seem to me to imply a mere drowsy fatalism1 or servile acquiescence1 or optimism shrinking from action4 ,the sage no doubt must many a time forfeit some measure of the blind1 the head-strong1 fanatical zeal that has enabled some men1 whose reason was fettered and bound1 to achieve results that are nigh superhuman2 but therefore none the less is it certain that no man of upright soul should go forth in search of illusion or blindness1 of zeal or vigour1 in a region inferior to that of his noblest hours4 ,to do our true duty in life1 it must ever be done with the aid of all that is highest in our soul1 highest in the truth that is ours4 ,and even though it be permissible at times in actual1 every-day life to compromise with events1 and not follow impulse to the ruthless end--as did ,st4 ,just1 for instance1 who in his admirable and ardent desire for universal peace1 happiness1 justice1 in all good faith sent thousands to the scaffold--in the life of thought it is our unvarying duty to pursue our thought right to the end4 ,again1 the knowledge that our actions still await the seal of final truth can deter from action those only who would have remained no less inert had no such knowledge been theirs4 ,thought that rises encourages where it disheartens4 ,and to those of a loftier vision1 prepared in advance to admire the truth that will nullify all they have done1 it seems only natural still to endeavour with all might and main to enhance what yet may be termed the justice1 the beauty1 the reason of this our earth4 ,they know that to penetrate deeper1 to understand1 to respect--all this is enhancement4 ,above all1 they have faith in the idea of the universe4 ,they are satisfied that every effort that tends to improvement approaches the secret intention of life2 they are taught by the failure of their noblest endeavours1 by the resistance of this mighty world1 to discover anew fresh reasons for wonder1 for ardour1 for hope4 ,as you climb up a mountain towards nightfall1 the trees and the houses1 the steeple1 the fields and the orchards1 the road1 and even the river1 will gradually dwindle and fade1 and at last disappear in the gloom that steals over the valley4 ,but the threads of light that shine from the houses of men and pierce through the blackest of nights1 these shine on undimmed4 ,and every step that you take to the summit reveals but more lights1 and more1 in the hamlets asleep at your foot4 ,for light1 though so fragile1 is perhaps the one thing of all that yields naught of itself as it faces immensity4 ,thus it is with our moral light too1 when we look upon life from some slight elevation4 ,it is well that reflection should teach us to disburden our soul of base passions2 but it should not discourage1 or weaken1 our humblest desire for justice1 for truth1 and for love4 ,whence comes this rule that ,i thus propound8 ,nay1 ,i know not myself4 ,to me it seems helpful and requisite2 nor could ,i give reasons other than spring from the feelings alone4 ,such reasons1 however1 at times should by no means be treated too lightly4 ,if ,i should ever attain a summit whence this law seemed useless to me1 ,i would listen to the secret instinct bidding me not linger1 but climb on still higher1 till its usefulness should once again be clearly apparent to me4 #e4 ,this general introduction over1 let us speak more particularly of the influence that wisdom can have upon destiny4 ,and1 the occasion presenting itself here1 ,i shall do well perhaps to state now1 at the very beginning1 that in this book it will be vain to seek for any rigorous method4 ,for indeed it is but composed of oft-interrupted thoughts1 that entwine themselves with more or less system around two or three subjects4 ,its object is not to convince2 there is nothing it professes to prove4 ,besides1 in life books have by no means the importance that writers and readers claim for them4 ,we should regard them as did a friend of mine1 a man of great wisdom1 who listened one day to the recital of the last moments of the ,emperor ,antoninus ,pius4 ,antoninus ,pius--who was perhaps truly the best and most perfect man this world has known1 better even than ,marcus ,aurelius2 for in addition to the virtues1 the kindness1 the deep feeling and wisdom of his adopted son1 he had something of greater virility and energy1 of simpler happiness1 something more real1 spontaneous1 closer to everyday life--,antoninus ,pius lay on his bed1 awaiting the summons of death1 his eyes dim with unbidden tears1 his limbs moist with the pale sweat of agony4 ,at that moment there entered the captain of the guard1 come to demand the watchword1 such being the custom4 ,,aequanimitas--,,evenness ,,of ,,mind1 he replied1 as he turned his head to the eternal shadow4 ,it is well that we should love and admire that word1 said my friend4 ,but better still1 he added1 to have it in us to sacrifice1 unknown to others1 unknown even to ourselves1 the time fortune accords us wherein to admire it1 in favour of the first little useful1 living deed that the same fortune incessantly offers to every willing heart4 #f4 ,it was doubtless the will of their destiny that men and events should oppress them whithersoever they went1 said an author of the heroes of his book4 ,thus it is with the majority of men2 ,indeed1 with all those who have not yet learned to distinguish between exterior and moral destiny4 ,they are like a little bewildered stream that ,i chanced to espy one evening as ,i stood on the hillside4 ,i beheld it far down in the valley1 staggering1 struggling1 climbing1 falling3 blindly groping its way to the great lake that slumbered1 the other side of the forest1 in the peace of the dawn4 ,here it was a block of basalt that forced the streamlet to wind round and about four times2 there1 the roots of a hoary tree2 further on still1 the mere recollection of an obstacle now gone for ever thrust it back to its source1 bubbling in impotent fury1 divided for all time from its goal and its gladness4 ,but1 in another direction1 at right angles almost to the distraught1 unhappy1 useless stream1 a force superior to the force of instinct had traced a long1 greenish canal1 calm1 peaceful1 deliberate2 that flowed steadily across the country1 across the crumbling stones1 across the obedient forest1 on its clear and unerring1 unhurrying way from its distant source on the horizon to the same tranquil1 shining lake4 ,and ,i had at my feet before me the image of the two great destinies offered to man4 #g4 ,side by side with those whom men and events oppress1 there are others who have within them some kind of inner force1 which has its will not only with men1 but even with the events that surround them4 ,of this force they are fully aware1 and indeed it is nothing more than a knowledge of self that has far overstepped the ordinary limits of consciousness4 ,our consciousness is our home1 our refuge from the caprice of fate1 our centre of happiness and strength4 ,but these things have been said so often that we need do no more than refer to them1 and indicate them as our starting-point4 ,ennoblement comes to man in the degree that his consciousness quickens1 and the nobler the man has become1 the profounder must consciousness be4 ,admirable exchange takes place here2 and even as love is insatiable in its craving for love1 so is consciousness insatiable in its craving for growth1 for moral uplifting2 and moral uplifting for ever is yearning for consciousness4 #h4 ,but this knowledge of self is only too often regarded as implying no more than a knowledge of our defects and our qualities1 whereas it does indeed extend infinitely further1 to mysteries vastly more helpful4 ,to know oneself in repose suffices not1 nor does it suffice to know oneself in the past or the present4 ,those within whom lies the force that ,i speak of know themselves in the future too4 ,consciousness of self with the greatest of men implies consciousness up to a point of their star or their destiny4 ,they are aware of some part of their future1 because they have already become part of this future4 ,they have faith in themselves1 for they know in advance how events will be received in their soul4 ,the event in itself is pure water that flows from the pitcher of fate1 and seldom has it either savour or perfume or colour4 ,but even as the soul may be wherein it seeks shelter1 so will the event become joyous or sad1 become tender or hateful1 become deadly or quick with life4 ,to those round about us there happen incessant and countless adventures1 whereof every one1 it would seem1 contains a germ of heroism2 but the adventure passes away1 and heroic deed is there none4 ,but when ,jesus ,christ met the ,samaritan1 met a few children1 an adulterous woman1 then did humanity rise three times in succession to the level of ,god4 #i4 ,it might almost be said that there happens to men only that they desire4 ,it is true that on certain external events our influence is of the feeblest1 but we have all-powerful action on that which these events shall become in ourselves--in other words1 on their spiritual part1 on what is radiant1 undying within them4 ,there are thousands of men within whom this spiritual part1 that is craving for birth in every misfortune1 or love1 or chance meeting1 has known not one moment of life--these men pass away like a straw on the stream4 ,and others there are within whom this immortal part absorbs all2 these are like islands that have sprung up in the ocean2 for they have found immovable anchorage1 whence they issue commands that their destiny needs must obey4 ,the life of most men will be saddened or lightened by the thing that may chance to befall them--in the men whom ,i speak of1 whatever may happen is lit up by their inward life4 ,when you love1 it is not your love that forms part of your destiny2 but the knowledge of self that you will have found1 deep down in your love--this it is that will help to fashion your life4 ,if you have been deceived1 it is not the deception that matters1 but the forgiveness whereto it gave birth in your soul1 and the loftiness1 wisdom1 completeness of this forgiveness--by these shall your life be steered to destiny's haven of brightness and peace2 by these shall your eyes see more clearly than if all men had ever been faithful4 ,but if1 by this act of deceit1 there have come not more simpleness1 loftier faith1 wider range to your love1 then have you been deceived in vain1 and may truly say nothing has happened4 #aj4 ,let us always remember that nothing befalls us that is not of the nature of ourselves4 ,there comes no adventure but wears to our soul the shape of our everyday thoughts2 and deeds of heroism are but offered to those who1 for many long years1 have been heroes in obscurity and silence4 ,and whether you climb up the mountain or go down the hill to the valley1 whether you journey to the end of the world or merely walk round your house1 none but yourself shall you meet on the highway of fate4 ,if ,judas go forth to-night1 it is towards ,judas his steps will tend1 nor will chance for betrayal be lacking2 but let ,socrates open his door1 he shall find ,socrates asleep on the threshold before him1 and there will be occasion for wisdom4 ,our adventures hover around us like bees round the hive when preparing to swarm4 ,they wait till the mother-idea has at last come forth from our soul1 and no sooner has she appeared than they all come rushing towards her4 ,be false1 and falsehoods will haste to you2 love1 and adventures will flock to you1 throbbing with love4 ,they seem to be all on the watch for the signal we hoist from within3 and if the soul grow wiser towards evening1 the sorrow will grow wiser too that the soul had fashioned for itself in the morning4 #aa4 ,no great inner event befalls those who summon it not2 and yet is there germ of great inner event in the smallest occurrence of life4 ,but events such as these are apportioned by justice1 and to each man is given of the spoil in accord with his merits4 ,we become that which we discover in the sorrows and joys that befall us2 and the least expected caprices of fate soon mould themselves on our thoughts4 ,it is in our past that destiny finds all her weapons1 her vestments1 her jewels4 ,were the only son of ,thersites and ,socrates to die the same day1 ,socrates' grief would in no way resemble the grief of ,thersites4 ,misfortune or happiness1 it seems1 must be chastened ere it knock at the door of the sage2 but only by stooping low can it enter the commonplace soul4 #ab4 ,as we become wiser we escape some of our instinctive destinies4 ,there is in us all sufficient desire for wisdom to transform into consciousness most of the hazards of life4 ,and all that has thus been transformed can belong no more to the hostile powers4 ,a sorrow your soul has changed into sweetness1 to indulgence or patient smiles1 is a sorrow that shall never return without spiritual ornament2 and a fault or defect you have looked in the face can harm you no more1 or even be harmful to others4 ,instinct and destiny are for ever conferring together2 they support one another1 and rove1 hand in hand1 round the man who is not on his guard4 ,and whoever is able to curb the blind force of instinct within him1 is able to curb the force of external destiny also4 ,he seems to create some kind of sanctuary1 whose inviolability will be in the degree of his wisdom and the consciousness he has acquired becomes the centre of a circle of light1 within which the passer-by is secure from the caprice of fate4 ,had ,jesus ,christ or ,socrates dwelt in ,agamemnon's palace among the ,atrides1 then had there been no ,oresteia2 nor would ,oedipus ever have dreamed of destroying his sight if they had been tranquilly seated on the threshold of ,jocasta's abode4 ,fatality shrinks back abashed from the should that has more than once conquered her2 there are certain disasters she dare not send forth when this soul is near2 and the sage1 as he passes by1 intervenes in numberless tragedies4 #ac4 ,the mere presence of the sage suffices to paralyse destiny2 and of this we find proof in the fact that there exists scarce a drama wherein a true sage appears2 when such is the case1 the event needs must halt before reaching bloodshed and tears4 ,not only is there no drama wherein sage is in conflict with sage1 but indeed there are very few whose action revolves round a sage4 ,and truly1 can we imagine that an event shall turn into tragedy between men who have earnestly striven to gain knowledge of self8 ,but the heroes of famous tragedies do not question their souls profoundly2 and it follows therefrom that the beauty the tragic poet presents is only a captive thing1 is fettered with chains2 for were his heroes to soar to the height the real hero would gain1 their weapons would fall to the ground1 and the drama itself become peace--the peace of enlightenment4 ,it is only in the ,passion of ,christ1 the ,phaedo1 ,prometheus1 the murder of ,orpheus1 the sacrifice of ,antigone--it is only in these that we find the drama of the sage1 the solitary drama of wisdom4 ,but elsewhere it is rarely indeed that tragic poets will allow a sage to appear on the scene1 though it be for an instant4 ,they are afraid of a lofty soul2 for they know that events are no less afraid1 and that a murder committed in the presence of the sage seems quite other than the murder committed in the presence of those whose soul still knows not itself4 ,had ,oedipus possessed the inner refuge that ,marcus ,aurelius1 for instance1 had been able to erect in himself--a refuge whereto he could fly at all times--had he only acquired some few of the certitudes open to every thinker--what could destiny then have done8 ,what would she have entrapped in her snares8 ,would they have contained aught besides the pure light that streams from the lofty soul1 as it grows more beautiful still in misfortune8 ,but where is the sage in ,oedipus8 ,is it ,tiresias8 ,he reads the future1 but knows not that goodness and forgiveness are lords of the future4 ,he knows the truth of the gods1 but not the truth of mankind4 ,he ignores the wisdom that takes misfortune to her arms and would fain give it of her strength4 ,truly they who know still know nothing if the strength of love be not theirs2 for the true sage is not he who sees1 but he who1 seeing the furthest1 has the deepest love for mankind4 ,he who sees without loving is only straining his eyes in the darkness4 #ad4 ,we are told that the famous tragedies show us the struggle of man against ,fate4 ,i believe1 on the contrary1 that scarcely a drama exists wherein fatality truly does reign4 ,search as ,i may1 ,i cannot find one which exhibits the hero in conflict with destiny pure and simple4 ,for indeed it is never destiny that he attacks2 it is with wisdom he is always at war4 ,real fatality exists only in certain external disasters-as disease1 accident1 the sudden death of those we love2 but ,,inner ,,fatality there is none4 ,wisdom has will power sufficient to rectify all that does not deal death to the body2 it will even at times invade the narrow domain of external fatality4 ,it is true that we must have amassed considerable and patient treasure within us for this will power to find the resources it needs4 #ae4 ,the statue of destiny casts a huge shadow over the valley1 which it seems to enshroud in gloom2 but this shadow has clearest outline for such as look down from the mountain4 ,we are born1 it may be1 with the shadow upon us2 but to many men is it granted to emerge from beneath it2 and even though infirmity or weakness keep us1 till death1 confined in these sombre regions1 still we can fly thence at times on the wings of our hopes and our thoughts4 ,there may well be some few over whom ,fate exerts a more tyrannous power1 by virtue of instinct1 heredity and other laws more relentless still1 more profound and obscure2 but even when we writhe beneath unmerited1 crushing misfortune2 even when fortune compels us to do the thing we should never have done1 had our hands been free2 even then1 when the deed has been done1 the misfortune has happened1 it still rests with ourselves to deny her the least influence on that which shall come to pass in our soul4 ,she may strike at the heart that is eager for good1 but still is she helpless to keep back the light that shall stream to this heart from the error acknowledged1 the pain undergone4 ,it is not in her power to prevent the soul from transforming each single affliction into thoughts1 into feelings and treasure she dare not profane4 ,be her empire never so great over all things external1 she always must halt when she finds on the threshold a silent guardian of the inner life4 ,and if it be granted her then to pass through to the hidden dwelling1 it is but as a bountiful guest she will enter1 bringing with her new pledges of peace3 refreshing the slumberous air1 and making still clearer the light1 the tranquillity deeper--illumining all the horizon4 #af4 ,let us ask once again3 what had destiny done if she had1 by some blunder1 lured ,epicurus1 or ,marcus ,aurelius1 or ,antoninus ,pius into the snares that she laid around ,oedipus8 ,i will even assume that she might have compelled ,antoninus1 for instance1 to murder his father1 and1 all unwittingly1 to profane the couch of his mother4 ,would that noble sovereign's soul have been hopelessly crushed8 ,would the end of it all not have been as the end of all dramas must be wherein the sage is attacked--great sorrow surely1 but also great radiance that springs from this sorrow1 and already is partly triumphant over the shadow of grief8 ,needs must ,antoninus have wept as all men must weep2 but tears can quench not one ray in the soul that shines with no borrowed light4 ,to the sage the road is long that leads from grief to despair2 it is a road untravelled by wisdom4 ,when the soul has attained such loftiness as the life of ,antoninus shows us that his had acquired1 then is each falling tear illumined by beautiful thought and by generous feeling4 ,he would have taken calamity to him1 to all that was purest1 most vast1 in his soul2 and misfortune1 like water1 espouses the form of the vase that contains it4 ,antoninus1 we say1 would have brought resignation to bear2 but this is a word that too often conceals the true working of a noble heart4 ,there is no soul so petty but what it too may believe that it is resigned4 ,alas6 it is not resignation that comforts us1 raises and chastens2 but indeed the thoughts and the feelings in whose name we embrace resignation2 and it is here that wisdom doles out the rewards they have earned to her faithful4 ,some ideas there are that lie beyond the reach of any catastrophe4 ,he will be far less exposed to disaster who cherishes ideas within him that soar high above the indifference1 selfishness1 vanities of everyday life4 ,and therefore1 come happiness or sorrow1 the happiest man will be he within whom the greatest idea shall burn the most ardently4 ,had fate so desired it1 ,antoninus also1 perhaps1 had been guilty of incest and parricide2 but his inward life would not have been crushed thereby1 as was that of ,oedipus2 nay1 these very catastrophes would have given him mightier strength1 and destiny would have fled in despair1 strewing the ground by the emperor's palace with her nets and her blunted weapons2 for even as triumph of dictators and consuls could be celebrated only in ,rome1 so can the true triumph of ,fate take place nowhere save in our soul4 #ag4 ,where do we find the fatality in ,hamlet1 ,king ,lear1 in ,macbeth8 ,is its throne not erected in the very centre of the old king's madness1 on the lowest degree of the young prince's imagination1 at the very summit of the ,thane's morbid cravings8 ,macbeth we may well pass by2 not need we linger over ,cordelia's father1 for his absence of consciousness is all too manifest2 but ,hamlet1 ,hamlet the thinker--is he wise8 ,is the elevation sufficient wherefrom he looks down on the crimes of ,elsinore8 ,he seems to regard them from the loftiest heights of his intellect2 but in the light-clad mountain range of wisdom there are other peaks that tower far above the heights of the intellect--the peaks of goodness and confidence1 of indulgence and love4 ,if he could have surveyed the misdeeds of ,elsinore from the eminence whence ,marcus ,aurelius or ,fenelon1 for instance1 had surely surveyed them1 what would have resulted then8 ,and1 first of all1 does it not often happen that a crime which is suddenly conscious of the gaze of a mightier soul will pause1 and halt1 and at last crawl back to its lair2 even as bees cease from labour when a gleam of sunshine steals into the hive8 ,the real destiny1 the inner destiny would in any event have followed its course in the souls of ,claudius and ,gertrude2 for these sinful ones had delivered themselves into its hands1 as must needs be the case with those whose ways are evil2 but would it have dared to spread its influence abroad if one of those sages had been in the palace8 ,would it have dared to overstep the shining1 denouncing barrier that his presence would have imposed1 and maintained1 in front of the palace gates8 ,when the sage's destiny blends with that of men of inferior wisdom1 the sage raises them to his level1 but himself will rarely descend4 ,neither on earth nor in the domain of fatality do rivers flow back to their source4 ,but to return3 let us imagine a sovereign1 all-powerful soul--that of ,jesus1 in ,hamlet's place at ,elsinore2 would the tragedy then have flown on till it reached the four deaths at the end8 ,is that conceivable8 ,a crime may be never so skilfully planned--when the eyes of deep wisdom rest on it1 it becomes like a trivial show that we offer to very small children at nightfall3 some magic-lantern performance1 whose tawdry imposture a last gleam of sunshine lays bare4 ,can you conceive ,jesus ,christ--nay1 any wise man you have happened to meet--in the midst of the unnatural gloom that overhung ,elsinore8 ,is not every action of ,hamlet induced by a fanatical impulse1 which tells him that duty consists in revenge alone8 and does it need superhuman effort to recognise that revenge never can be a duty8 ,i say again that ,hamlet thinks much1 but that he is by no means wise4 ,he cannot conceive where to look for the weak spot in destiny's armour4 ,lofty thoughts suffice not always to overcome destiny2 for against these destiny can oppose thoughts that are loftier still2 but what destiny has ever withstood thoughts that are simple and good1 thoughts that are tender and loyal8 ,we can triumph over destiny only by doing the very reverse of the evil she fain would have us commit4 ,for no tragedy can be inevitable4 ,at ,elsinore there is not a soul but refuses to see1 and hence the catastrophe2 but a soul that is quick with life will compel those around it to open their eyes4 ,where was it written that ,laertes1 ,ophelia1 ,hamlet1 ,claudius1 ,gertrude1 should die--where1 save in ,hamlet's pitiful blindness8 ,but was this blindness inevitable8 ,why speak of destiny when a simple thought had sufficed to arrest all the forces of murder8 ,the empire of destiny is surely sufficiently vast4 ,i acknowledge her might when a wall crashes down on my head1 when the storm drives a ship on the rocks1 when disease attacks those whom ,i love2 but into man's soul she never will come1 uncalled4 ,hamlet is unhappy because he moves in unnatural darkness2 and his ignorance puts the seal upon his unhappiness4 ,we have but to issue commands and fate will obey--there is nothing in the world that will offer such long and patient submission4 ,horatio1 up to the last1 could have issued commands2 but his master's shadow lay on him1 and he lacked the courage to shake himself free4 ,had there been but one soul courageous enough to cry out the truth1 then had the history of ,elsinore not been shrouded in tears of hatred and horror4 ,but misfortune1 that bends beneath the fingers of wisdom like the cane that we cut from the tree1 becomes iron1 and murderously rigid1 in the hand of unconsciousness4 ,once again1 all depended here1 not on destiny1 but on the wisdom of the wisest1 and this ,hamlet was2 therefore did he1 by his presence1 become the centre of the drama of ,elsinore2 and on himself only did the wisdom of ,hamlet depend4 #ah4 ,and if you look distrustfully on imaginary tragedies1 you have only to investigate some of the greatest dramas of authentic history to find that in these too the destinies of men are no different3 that their ways are the same1 and their petulance1 their revolt and submission4 ,you will discover that there too it is a force of man's own creating that plays the most active part in what if pleases us to term fatality4 ,this fatality1 it is true1 is enormous1 but rarely irresistible4 ,it does not leap forth at a given moment from an inexorable1 inaccessible1 unfathomable abyss4 ,it is build up of the energy1 the desires and suffering1 the thoughts and passions of our brothers2 and these passions should be well known to us1 for they differ not from our own4 ,in our most inexplicable moments1 in our most mysterious1 unexpected misfortunes1 we rarely find ourselves struggling with an invisible enemy1 or one that is entirely foreign to us4 ,why strive of our own free will to enlarge the domain of the inevitable8 ,they who are truly strong are aware that among the forces that oppose their schemes there are some that they know not2 but against such as they do know they fight on as bravely as though no others existed2 and these men will be often victorious4 ,we shall have added most strangely to our safety and happiness and peace the day that our sloth and our ignorance shall have ceased to term fatal4 ,what should truly be looked on as human and natural by our intelligence and our energy4 #ai4 ,let us consider one noteworthy victim of destiny1 ,louis ,,xvi4 ,never1 it would seem1 did relentless fatality clamour so loudly for the destruction of an unfortunate man2 of one who was gentle1 and good1 and virtuous1 and honourable4 ,and yet1 as we look more closely into the pages of history1 do we not find that fatality distils her poison from the victim's own wavering feebleness1 his own trivial duplicity1 blindness1 unreason1 and vanity8 ,and if it be true that some kind of predestination governs every circumstance of life1 it appears to be no less true that such predestination exists in our character only2 and to modify character must surely be easy to the man of unfettered will1 for is it not constantly changing in the lives of the vast bulk of men8 ,is your own character1 at thirty1 the same as it was when you were ten years younger8 ,it will be better or worse in the measure that you have believed that disloyalty1 wickedness1 hatred and falsehood have triumphed in life1 or goodness1 and truth1 and love4 ,and you will have thought that you witnessed the triumph of hatred or love1 of truth or of falsehood1 in exact accord with the lofty or baser idea as to the happiness and aim of your life that will slowly have arisen within you4 ,for it is our most secret desire that governs and dominates all4 ,if your eyes look for nothing but evil1 you will always see evil triumphant2 but if you have learned to let your glance rest on sincerity1 simpleness1 truth1 you will ever discover1 deep down in all things1 the silent overpowering victory of that which you love4 #bj4 ,it is scarcely from this point of view1 however1 that ,louis ,,xvi4 should be ,judged4 ,let us rather imagine ourselves in his place1 in the midst of his doubt and bewilderment1 his darkness and difficulties4 ,now that we know all that happened it is easy enough to declare what should have been done2 but are we ourselves1 at this moment1 aware of what is our duty8 ,are we not contending with troubles and doubts of our own8 and were it not well that they who one day shall pass judgment upon us should seek out the track that our footsteps have left on the sands of the hillock we climbed1 hoping thence to discover the future8 ,louis ,,xvi4 was bewildered3 do we know what ought to be done8 ,do we know what we best had abandon1 what we best had defend8 ,are we wiser than he as we waver betwixt the rights of human reason and those that circumstance claims8 ,and when hesitation is conscientious1 does it not often possess all the elements of duty8 ,there is one most important lesson to be learned from the example of this unfortunate king3 and it is that when doubt confronts us which in itself is noble and great1 it is our duty to march bravely onwards1 turning neither to right nor to left of us1 going infinitely further than seems to be reasonable1 practical1 just4 ,the idea that we hold to-day of duty1 and justice1 and truth1 may seem clear to us now1 and advanced and unfettered2 but how different will it appear a few years1 a few centuries later6 ,had ,louis ,,xvi4 done what we should have done--we who now are aware of what had been the right thing to do--had he frankly renounced all the follies of royal prerogative1 and loyally adopted the new truth and loftier justice that had sprung into being1 then should we to-day be admiring his genius4 ,and the king himself1 perhaps--for he was not a foolish man1 or wicked--may have for one instant beheld his own situation with the clear eye of an impartial philosopher4 ,that at least is by no means impossible1 historically or psychologically4 ,even in our most solemn hours of doubt it is rare that we know not where we should look for the fixed point of duty1 its unalterable summit2 but we feel that there stretches a distance too wide to be travelled between the actual thing to be done and this mountain-peak1 that glitters afar in its solitude4 ,and yet it is proved by man's whole history--by the life of each one of us--that it is on the loftiest summit that right has always its dwelling2 and that to this summit we too at the end must climb1 after much precious time has been lost on many an intermediate eminence4 ,and what is a sage1 a great man1 a hero1 if not one who has dared to go1 alone and ahead of the others1 to the deserted table-land that lay more or less within sight of all men8 #ba4 ,we do not imply that ,louis ,,xvi4 should necessarily have been a man of this stamp1 a man of genius2 although to have genius seems almost the duty of him who sways in his hands the destiny of vast numbers of men4 ,nor do we claim that the best men among us to-day would have been able to escape his errors1 or the misfortunes to which they gave rise4 ,and yet there is one thing certain3 that of all these misfortunes none had super-human origin2 not one was supernaturally1 or too mysteriously1 inevitable4 ,they came not from another world2 they were launched by no monstrous god1 capricious and incomprehensible4 ,they were born of an idea of justice that men failed to grasp2 an idea of justice that suddenly had wakened in life1 but never had lain asleep in the reason of man4 ,and is there a thing in this world can be more reassuring1 or nearer to us1 more profoundly human1 than an idea of justice8 ,louis ,,xvi4 may well have regretted that this idea1 that shattered his peace1 should have awakened during his reign2 but this was the only reproach he could level at fate2 and when we murmur at fate ourselves our complaints have much the same value4 ,for the rest1 it is legitimate enough to suppose that there needed but one single act of energy1 absolute loyalty1 disinterested1 clear-sighted wisdom1 to change the whole course of events4 ,if the flight to ,varennes--in itself an act of duplicity and culpable weakness--had only been arranged a little less childishly1 foolishly 7as any man would have arranged it who was accustomed to the habits of life71 there can be not a doubt that ,louis ,,xvi4 would never have died on the scaffold4 ,was it a god1 or his blind reliance on ,marie ,antoinette1 that led him to entrust de ,fersen--a stupid1 conceited1 and tactless creature--with the preparations and control of this disastrous journey8 ,was it a force instinct with great mystery1 or only his own unconsciousness1 heedlessness1 thoughtlessness1 and a kind of strange apathetic submission--such as the weak and the idle will often display at moments of danger1 when they seem almost to challenge their star--that induced him again and again1 at each change of horses1 to put his head out of the carriage window1 and thus be recognised three or four times8 ,and at the moment that decided all1 in that throbbing and sinister night of ,varennes--a night indeed when fatality should have been an immovable mountain governing all the horizon--do we not see this fatality stumbling at every step1 like a child that is learning to walk and wonders1 is it this white pebble or that tuft of grass that will cause it to fall to right or to left of the path8 ,and then1 at the tragic halt of the carriage1 in that black night3 at the terrible cry sent forth by young ,drouet1 ,in the name of the ,nation6 there had needed but one order from the king1 one lash of the whip1 one pull at the collar--and you and ,i would probably not have been born1 for the history of the world had been different4 ,and again1 in presence of the mayor1 who stood there1 respectful1 disconcerted1 hesitating1 ready to fling every gate open had but one imperious word been spoken2 and at the shop of ,m4 ,sauce1 the worthy village grocer2 and1 last of all1 when ,goguelat and de ,choiseul had arrived with their hussars1 bringing rescue1 salvation--did not all depend1 a hundred times over1 on a mere yes or no1 a step1 a gesture1 a look8 ,take any ten men with whom you are intimate1 let them have been ,king of ,france1 you can foretell the issue of their ten nights4 ,ah1 it was that night truly that heaped shame on fatality1 that laid bare her weakness6 ,for that night revealed to all men the dependence1 the wretched and shivering poverty of the great mysterious force that1 in moments of undue resignation1 seems to weigh so heavily on life6 ,never before has she been beheld so completely despoiled of her vestments1 of her imposing1 deceptive robes1 as she incessantly came and went that night1 from death to life1 from life to death2 throwing herself at last1 like a woman distraught1 into the arms of an unhappy king1 whom she besought til dawn for a decision1 an existence1 that she herself never can find save only in the depths of the will and the intellect of man4 #bb4 ,and yet this is not the entire truth4 ,it is helpful to regard events in this fashion1 thus seeking to minimise the importance of fatality1 looking upon it as some vague and wandering creature that we have to shelter and guide4 ,we gain the more courage thereby1 the more confidence1 initiative2 and these are qualities essential to the doing of anything useful2 and they shall stand us in good stead1 too1 when our own hour of danger draws nigh4 ,but for all that1 we do not pretend that there truly is no other force--that all things can be governed by our will and our intellect4 ,these must be trained to act like the soldiers of a conquering army2 they must learn to thrive at the cost of all that opposes them2 they must find sustenance even in the unknown that towers above them4 ,those who desire to emerge from the ordinary habits of life1 from the straitened happiness of mere pleasure-seeking men1 must march with deliberate conviction along the path that is known to them1 yet never forget the unexplored regions through which this path winds4 ,we must act as though we were masters--as though all things were bound to obey us2 and yet let us carefully tend in our soul a thought whose duty it shall be to offer noble submission to the mighty forces we may encounter4 ,it is well that the hand should believe that all is expected1 foreseen2 but well1 too1 that we should have in us a secret idea1 inviolable1 incorruptible1 that will always remember that whatever is great most often must be unforeseen4 ,it is the unforeseen1 the unknown1 that fulfil what we never should dare to attempt2 but they will not come to our aid if they find not1 deep down in our heart1 an altar inscribed to their worship4 ,men of the mightiest will--men like ,napoleon--were careful1 in their most extraordinary deeds1 to leave open a good share to fate4 ,those within whom there lives not a generous hope will keep fate closely confined1 as they would a sickly child2 but others invite her into the limitless plains man has not yet the strength to explore1 and their eyes follow her every movement4 #bc4 ,these feverish hours of history resemble a storm that we see on the ocean2 we come from far inland2 we rush to the beach1 in keen expectation2 we eye the enormous waves with curious eagerness1 with almost childish intensity4 ,and there comes one along that is three times as high and as fierce as the rest4 ,it rushes towards us like some monster with diaphanous muscles4 ,it uncoils itself in mad haste from the distant horizon1 as though it were bearer of some urgent1 complete revelation4 ,it ploughs in its wake a track so deep that we feel that the sea must at last be yielding up one of her secrets2 but all things happen the same as on a breathless and cloudless day1 when languid wavelets roll to and fro in the limpid1 fathomless water2 from the ocean arises no living thing1 not a blade of grass1 not a stone4 ,if aught could discourage the sage--though he is not truly wise whose astonishment is not enlightened1 and his interest quickened1 by the unforeseen thing that discourages--it would be the discovery1 in this ,french ,revolution1 of more than one destiny that is infinitely sadder1 more overwhelming1 more inexplicable1 than that of ,louis ,,xvi4 ,i refer to the ,girondins3 above all1 to the admirable ,vergniaud4 ,to-day even1 though we know all that the future kept hidden from him1 and are able to divine what it was that was sought by the instinctive desire of that exceptional century--to-day even it were surely not possible to act more nobly1 more wisely1 than he4 ,let fortune hurl any man into the burning centre of a movement that had swept every barrier down1 it were surely not possible to reveal a finer character or loftier spirit4 ,could we fashion1 deep down in our heart1 out of all that is purest within us1 out of all our wisdom and all our love1 some beautiful1 spotless creature with never a thought of self1 without weakness or error--such a being would desire a place by the side of ,vergniaud1 on those deserted ,convention seats1 whereon the shadow of death seemed already to hover1 that he might think as ,vergniaud thought1 and so speak1 and act4 ,he saw the infallible1 eternal1 that lay the other side of that tragical moment2 he knew how to be humane and benevolent still1 through all those terrible days when humanity and benevolence seemed the bitterest enemies of the ideal of justice1 whereto he had sacrificed all2 and in his great and noble doubt he marched bravely onwards1 turning neither to right nor to left of him1 going infinitely further than seemed to be reasonable1 practical1 just4 ,the violent death that was not unexpected came towards him1 with half his road yet untravelled2 to teach us that often in this strange conflict between man and his destiny1 the question is not how to save the life of our body1 but that of our most beautiful feelings1 of our loftiest thoughts1 ,of what avail are my loftiest thoughts if ,i have ceased to exist8 there are some will ask2 to whom others1 it may be1 will answer1 ,what becomes of myself if all that ,i love in my heart and my spirit must die1 that my life may be saved8 ,and are not almost all the morals1 and heroism1 and virtue of man summed up in that single choice8 #bd4 ,but what may this wisdom be that we rate thus highly8 ,let us not seek to define it too closely2 that were but to enchain it4 ,if a man were desirous to study the nature of light1 and began by extinguishing all the lights that were near1 would not a few cinders1 a smouldering wick1 be all he would ever discover8 ,and so has it been with those who essayed definition4 ,the word wise1 said ,joubert1 when used to a child1 is a word that each child understands1 and that we need never explain4 ,let us accept it even as the child accepts it1 that it may grow with our growth4 ,let us say of wisdom what ,sister ,hadewijck1 the mysterious enemy of ,ruijsbroeck the ,admirable1 said of love3 ,its profoundest abyss is its most beautiful form4 ,wisdom requires no form2 her beauty must vary1 as varies the beauty of flame4 ,she is no motionless goddess1 for ever couched on her throne4 ,she is ,minerva who follows us1 soars to the skies with us1 falls to the earth with us1 mingles her tears with our tears1 and rejoices when we rejoice4 ,truly wise you are not unless your wisdom be constantly changing from your childhood on to your death4 ,the more the word means to you1 the more beauty and depth it conveys1 the wiser must you become2 and each step that one takes towards wisdom reveals to the soul ever-widening space1 that wisdom never shall traverse4 #be4 ,he who knows himself is wise2 yet have we no sooner acquired real consciousness of our being than we learn that true wisdom is a thing that lies far deeper than consciousness4 ,the chief gain of increased consciousness is that it unveils an ever-loftier unconsciousness1 on whose heights do the sources lie of the purest wisdom4 ,the heritage of unconsciousness is for all men the same2 but it is situate partly within and partly without the confines of normal consciousness4 ,the bulk of mankind will rarely pass over the border2 but true lovers of wisdom press on1 till they open new routes that cross over the frontier4 ,if ,i love1 and my love has procured me the fullest consciousness man may attain1 then will an unconsciousness light up this love that shall be quite other than the one whereby commonplace love is obscured4 ,for this second unconsciousness hedges the animal round1 whereas the first draws close unto ,god2 but needs must it lose all trace of the second ere it become aware of itself4 ,in unconsciousness we ever must dwell2 but are able to purify1 day after day1 the unconsciousness that wraps us around4 #bf4 ,we shall not become wise through worshipping reason alone2 and wisdom means more than perpetual triumph of reason over inferior instincts4 ,such triumphs can help us but little if our reason be not taught thereby to offer profoundest submission to another and different instinct--that of the soul4 ,these triumphs are precious1 because they reveal the presence of diviner instinct1 that grows ever diviner still4 ,and their aim is not in themselves2 they serve but to clear the way for the destiny of the soul1 which is a destiny1 always1 of purification and light4 #bg4 ,reason flings open the door to wisdom2 but the most living wisdom befinds itself not in reason4 ,reason bars the gate to malevolent destiny2 but wisdom1 away on the horizon1 throws open another gate to propitious destiny4 ,reason defends and withdraws2 forbids1 rejects1 and destroys4 ,wisdom advances1 attacks1 and adds2 increases1 creates1 and commands4 ,reason produces not wisdom1 which is rather a craving of soul4 ,it dwells up above1 far higher than reason2 and thus is it of the nature of veritable wisdom to do countless things whereof reason disapproves1 or shall but approve hereafter4 ,so was it that wisdom one day said to reason1 ,it were well to love one's enemies and return good for evil4 ,reason1 that day1 tiptoe on the loftiest peak in its kingdom1 at last was fain to agree4 ,but wisdom is not yet content1 and seeks ever further1 alone4 #bh4 ,if wisdom obeyed reason only1 and sought nothing more than to overcome instinct1 then would wisdom be ever the same4 ,there would be but one wisdom for all1 and its whole range would be known to man1 for reason has more than once explored its entire domain4 ,certain fixed points there well may be that are common to all classes of wisdom2 but there exists none the less the widest possible difference between the atmospheres that enwrapped the wisdom of ,jesus ,christ and of ,socrates1 of ,aristides and ,marcus ,aurelius1 of ,fenelon and ,jean ,paul4 ,let the same event befall these men on the self-same day3 if it fall into the running waters of their wisdom1 it will undergo complete transformation1 becoming different in every one2 if it fall into the stagnant water of their reason1 it will remain as it was1 unchanged4 ,if ,jesus ,christ and ,socrates both were to meet the adulterous woman1 the words that their reason would prompt them to speak would vary but little2 but belonging to different worlds would be the working of the wisdom within them1 far beyond words and far beyond thoughts4 ,for differences such as these are of the very essence of wisdom4 ,there is but one starting-point for the wise--the threshold of reason4 ,but they separate one from the other as soon as the triumphs of reason are well understood2 in other words1 as soon as they enter freely the domain of the higher unconsciousness4 #bi4 ,to say this is reasonable is by no means the same as to say this is wise4 ,the thing that is reasonable is not of necessity wise1 and a thing may be very wise and yet be condemned by over-exacting reason4 ,it is from reason that justice springs1 but goodness is born of wisdom2 and goodness1 we are told by ,plutarch1 extends much further than justice4 ,is it to reason or wisdom that heroism should be ascribed8 ,wisdom1 perhaps1 is only the sense of the infinite applied to our moral life4 ,reason1 it is true1 has the sense of the infinite also1 but dare not do more than accord it bare recognition4 ,it would seem opposed to the very instinct of reason to regard the sense of the infinite as being of importance in life2 but wisdom is wise in the measure that the ,infinite governs all she procures to be done4 ,in reason no love can be found--there is much love in wisdom2 and all that is highest in wisdom entwines around all that is purest in love4 ,love is the form most divine of the infinite1 and also1 because most divine1 the form most profoundly human4 ,why should we not say that wisdom is the triumph of reason divine over reason of man8 #cj4 ,we cannot cultivate reason too fully1 but by wisdom only should reason be guided4 ,the man is not wise whose reason has not yet been taught to obey the first signal of love4 ,what would ,christ1 all the heroes1 have done had their reason not learned to submit8 ,is each deed of the hero not always outside the boundary of reason8 and yet1 who would venture to say that the hero is not wiser by far than the sluggard who quits not his chair because reason forbids him to rise8 ,let us say it once more--the vase wherein we should tend the true wisdom is love1 and not reason4 ,reason is found1 it is true1 at the root-springs of wisdom1 yet is wisdom not reason's flower4 ,for we speak not of logical wisdom here1 but of wisdom quite other1 the favourite sister of love4 ,reason and love battle fiercely at first in the soul that begins to expand2 but wisdom is born of the peace that at last comes to pass between reason and love2 and the peace becomes the profounder as reason yields up still more of her rights to love4 #ca4 ,wisdom is the lamp of love1 and love is the oil of the lamp4 ,love1 sinking deeper1 grows wiser2 and wisdom that springs up aloft comes ever the nearer to love4 ,if you love1 you must needs become wise2 be wise1 and you surely shall love4 ,nor can any one love with the veritable love but his love must make him the better2 and to grow better is but to grow wiser4 ,there is not a man in the world but something improves in his soul from the moment he loves--and that though his love be but vulgar2 and those in whom love never dies must needs continue to love as their soul grows nobler and nobler4 ,love is the food of wisdom2 wisdom the food of love2 a circle of light within which those who love1 clasp the hands of those who are wise4 ,wisdom and love are one2 and in ,swedenborg's ,paradise the wife is the love of the wisdom of the wise4 #cb4 ,our reason1 said ,fenelon1 is derived from the clearness of our ideas4 ,but our wisdom1 we might add--in other words1 all that is best in our soul and our character1 is to be found above all in those ideas that are not yet clear4 ,were we to allow our clear ideas only to govern our life1 we should quickly become undeserving of either much love or esteem4 ,for1 truly1 what could be less clear than the reasons that bid us be generous1 upright1 and just2 that teach us to cherish in all things the noblest of feelings and thoughts8 ,but it happily so comes to pass that the more clear ideas we possess1 the more do we learn to respect those that as yet are still vague4 ,we must strive without ceasing to clarify as many ideas as we can1 that we may thus arouse in our soul more and more that now are obscure4 ,the clear ideas may at times seem to govern our external life1 but the others perforce must march on at the head of our intimate life1 and the life that we see invariably ends by obeying the invisible life4 ,on the quality1 number1 and power of our clear ideas do the quality1 number1 and power depend of those that are vague2 and hidden away in the midst of these vague ones1 patiently biding their hour1 there may well lurk most of the definite truths that we seek with such ardour4 ,let us not keep them waiting too long2 and indeed1 a beautiful crystal idea we awaken within us shall not fail1 in its turn1 to arouse a beautiful vague idea2 which last1 growing old1 and having itself become clear 7for is not perfect clearness most often the sign of decrepitude in the idea871 shall also go forth1 and disturb from its slumber another obscure idea1 but loftier1 lovelier far than it had been itself in its sleep2 and thus1 it may be1 treading gently1 one after the other1 and never disheartened1 in the midst of those silent ranks--some day1 by mere chance1 a small hand1 scarce visible yet1 shall touch a great truth4 #cc4 ,clear ideas and obscure ideas2 heart1 intellect1 will1 and reason1 and soul--truly these words that we use do but mean more or less the same thing3 the spiritual riches of man4 ,the soul may well be no more than the most beautiful desire of our brain1 and ,god ,himself be only the most beautiful desire of our soul4 ,so great is the darkness here that we can but seek to divide it2 and the lines that we trace must be blacker still than the sections they traverse4 ,of all the ideals that are left to us1 there is perhaps only one that we still can accept2 and that one is to gain full self-knowledge2 but to how great an extent does this knowledge truly depend on our reason--this knowledge that at first would appear to depend on our reason alone8 ,surely he who at last had succeeded in realising1 to the fullest extent1 the place that he filled in the universe--surely he should be better than others1 be wiser and truer1 more upright2 in a word1 be more moral8 ,but can any man claim1 in good faith1 to have grasped this relation2 and do not the roots of the most positive morals lie hidden beneath some kind of mystic unconsciousness8 ,our most beautiful thought does no more than pass through our intelligence2 and none would imagine that the harvest must have been reaped in the road because it is seen passing by4 ,when reason1 however precise1 sets forth to explore her domain1 every step that she takes is over the border4 ,and yet is it the intellect that lends the first touches of beauty to thought2 the rest lies not wholly with us2 but this rest will not stir into motion until intellect touches the spring4 ,reason1 the well-beloved daughter of intellect1 must go take her stand on the threshold of our spiritual life1 having first flung open the gates of the prison beneath1 where the living1 instinctive forces of being lie captive1 asleep4 ,she must wait1 with the lamp in her hand2 and her presence alone shall suffice to ward off from the threshold all that does not yet conform with the nature of light4 ,beyond1 in the regions unlit by her rays1 obscure life continues4 ,this troubles her not2 indeed1 she is glad4 444 ,she knows that1 in the eyes of the ,god she desires all that has not yet crossed her arcade of light--be it dream1 be it thought1 even act--can add nothing to1 can take nothing from1 the ideal creature she is craving to mould4 ,she watches the flame of her lamp2 needs must it burn brightly1 and remain at its post1 and be seen from afar4 ,she listens1 untroubled1 to the murmur of inferior instincts out there in the darkness4 ,but the prisoners slowly awake2 there are some who draw nigh to the threshold1 and their radiance is greater than hers4 ,there flows from them a light less material1 softer and purer than that of the bold1 hard flame which her hand protects4 ,they are the inscrutable powers of goodness and love2 and others follow behind1 more mysterious still1 and more infinite1 seeking admission4 ,what shall she do8 ,if1 at the time that she took her stand there on the threshold1 she had still lacked the courage to learn that she could not exist alone1 then will she be troubled1 afraid2 she will make fast the gates2 and should these be ever reopened1 she would find only quivering cinders at the foot of the gloomy stairs4 ,but if her strength be unshaken2 if from all that she could not learn she has learned1 at least1 that in light there can never be danger1 and that reason itself may be freely staked where greater brightness prevails--then shall ineffable changes take place on the threshold1 from lamp unto lamp4 ,drops of an unknown oil will blend with the oil of the wisdom of man2 and when the white strangers have passed1 the flame of her lamp shall rise higher1 transformed for all time2 shall shed purer and mightier radiance amidst the columns of the loftier doorway4 #cd4 ,so much for isolated wisdom2 now let us return to the wisdom that moves to the grave in the midst of the mighty crowd of human destinies2 for the destiny of the sage holds not aloof from that of the wicked and frivolous4 ,all destinies are for ever commingling2 and the adventure is rare in whose web the hempen thread blends not with the golden4 ,there are misfortunes more gradual1 less frightful of aspect1 than those that befell ,oedipus and the prince of ,elsinore2 misfortunes that quail not beneath the gaze of truth or justice or love4 ,those who speak of the profit of wisdom are never so wise as when they freely admit1 without pride or heart-burning1 that wisdom grants scarcely a boon to her faithful that the foolish or wicked would prize4 ,and indeed1 it may often take place that the sage1 as he moves among men1 shall pass almost unnoticed1 shall affect them but slightly2 be this that his stay is too brief1 that he comes too late1 that he misses true contact2 or perchance that he has to contend with forces too overwhelming1 amassed by myriad men from time immemorial4 ,no miracles can he perform on material things2 he can save only that which life's ordinary laws still allow to be saved2 and himself1 it may be1 shall be suddenly seized in a great inexorable whirlwind4 ,but1 though he perish therein1 still does he escape the fate that is common to most2 for at least he will die without having been forced--for weeks1 or it may be for years1 before the catastrophe--to be the helpless1 despairing witness of the ruin of his soul4 ,and to save some one--if we admit that in life there are truly two lives--does not of necessity mean that we save him from death and disaster2 but indeed that we render him happier1 inasmuch as we try to improve him4 ,moral salvation is the greatest salvation2 and yet1 what a trifle this seems1 as everything seems that is done on the loftiest summits of soul4 ,was the penitent thief not saved2 and that not alone in the ,christian sense of the word1 but in its fullest1 most perfect meaning8 ,still had he to die1 and at that very hour2 but he died eternally happy2 because at the very last moment he too had been loved1 and a ,being of infinite wisdom had declared that his soul had not been without value2 that his soul1 too1 had been good1 and had not passed through the world unperceived of all men4 #ce4 ,as we go deeper down into life we discover the secret of more and more sorrow and helplessness4 ,we see that many souls round us lead idle and foolish lives1 because they believe they are useless1 unnoticed by all1 unloved1 and convinced they have nothing within them that is worthy of love4 ,but to the sage the hour must come when every soul that exists claims his glance1 his approval1 his love--if only because it possesses the mysterious gift of existence4 ,the hour must come when he sees that falsehood and weakness and vice are but on the surface2 when his eye shall pierce through1 and discover the strength1 and the truth1 and the virtue that lie underneath4 ,happy and blessed hour1 when wickedness stands forth revealed as goodness bereft of its guide2 and treachery is seen to be loyalty1 for ever astray from the highway of happiness2 and hatred becomes only love1 in poignant despair1 that is digging its grave4 ,then1 unsuspected of any1 shall it be with all those who are near the good man as it was with the penitent thief2 into the humblest soul that will thus have been saved by a look1 or a word1 or a silence1 shall the true happiness fall--the happiness fate cannot touch2 that brings to all men the oblivion it gave unto ,socrates1 and causes each one to forget1 until nightfall1 that the death--giving cup had been drained ere the sun went down4 #cf4 ,the inner life1 perhaps1 is not what we deem it to be4 ,there are as many kinds of inner lives as there are of external lives4 ,into these tranquil regions the smallest may enter as readily as he who is greatest1 for the gate that leads thither is not always the gate of the intellect4 ,it often may happen that the man of vast knowledge shall knock at this gate in vain1 reply being made from within by the man who knows nothing4 ,the inner life that is surest1 most lasting1 possessed of the uttermost beauty1 must needs be the one that consciousness slowly erects in itself1 with the aid of all that is purest in the soul4 ,and he is wise who has learned that this life should be nourished on every event of the day3 he to whom deceit or betrayal serves but to enhance his wisdom3 he in whom evil itself becomes fuel for the flame of love4 ,he is wise who at last sees in suffering only the light that it sheds on his soul2 and whose eyes never rest on the shadow it casts upon those who have sent it towards him4 ,and wiser still is the man to whom sorrow and joy not only bring increase of consciousness1 but also the knowledge that something exists superior to consciousness even4 ,to have reached this point is to reach the summit of inward life1 whence at last we look down on the flames whose light has helped our ascent4 ,but not many can climb so high2 and happiness may be achieved in the less ardent valley below1 where the flames spring darkly to life4 ,and there are existences still more obscure which yet have their places of refuge4 ,there are some that instinctively fashion inward lives for themselves4 ,there are some that1 bereft of initiative or of intelligence1 never discover the path that leads into themselves1 and are never aware of all that their refuge contains2 and yet will their actions be wholly the same as the actions of those whose intellect weighs every treasure4 ,there are some who desire only good1 though they know not wherefore they desire it1 and have no suspicion that goodness is the one fixed star of loftiest consciousness4 ,the inner life begins when the soul becomes good1 and not when the intellect ripens4 ,it is somewhat strange that this inner life can never be formed out of evil4 ,no inner life is for him whose soul is bereft of all nobleness4 ,he may have full knowledge of self2 he may know1 it may be1 wherefore he shuns goodness2 and yet shall he seek in vain for the refuge1 the strength1 the treasure of invisible gladness1 that form the possessions of him who can fearlessly enter his heart4 ,for the inward life is built up of a certain rejoicing of soul2 and the soul can never be happy if it possess not1 and love not1 something that is pure4 ,it may perhaps err in its choice1 but then even will it be happier than the soul to which it has never been given to choose4 #cg4 ,and thus are we truly saving a man if we bring about that he loves evil somewhat less than he loved it before2 for we are helping that man to construct1 deep down in his soul1 the refuge where--against destiny shall brandish her weapons in vain4 ,this refuge is the monument of consciousness1 or1 it may be1 of love2 for love is nothing but consciousness1 still vaguely in search of itself2 and veritable consciousness nothing but love that at last has emerged from the shadow4 ,and it is in the deepest recess of this refuge that the soul shall kindle the wondrous fire of her joy4 ,and this joy of the soul is like unto no other joy2 and even as material fire will chase away deadly disease from the earth1 so will the joy of the soul scatter sorrow that malevolent destiny brings4 ,it arises not from exterior happiness2 it arises not from satisfied self-love2 for the joy that self-love procures becomes less as the soul becomes nobler1 but the joy of pure love increases as nobility comes to the soul4 ,nor is this joy born of pride2 for to be able to smile at its beauty is not enough to bring joy to the soul4 ,the soul that has sought in itself has the right to know of its beauty2 but to brood on this beauty too much1 to become over-conscious thereof1 were perhaps to detract somewhat from the unconsciousness of its love4 ,the joy that ,i speak of takes not from love what it adds unto consciousness2 for in this joy1 and in this joy alone1 do consciousness and love become one1 feeding each on the other1 each gaining from that which it gives4 ,the striving intellect may well know happiness beyond the reach of the satisfied body2 but the soul that grows nobler has joys that are often denied to the striving intellect4 ,these two will often unite and labour together at building the house within4 ,but still it will happen at times that both work apart1 and widely different then are the structures each will erect4 ,and were this to be so1 and the being ,i loved best of all in the world came and asked me which he should choose--which refuge ,i held to be most unattackable1 sweetest1 profoundest--,i would surely advise him to shelter his destiny in the refuge of the soul that grows nobler4 #ch4 ,is the sage never to suffer8 ,shall no storm ever break on the roof of his dwelling1 no traps be laid to ensnare him8 ,shall wife and friends never fail him8 ,must his father not die1 and his mother1 his brothers1 his sons--must all these not die like the rest8 ,shall angels stand guard at each highway through which sorrow can pass into man8 ,did not ,christ ,himself weep as ,he stood before ,lazarus' tomb8 ,had not ,marcus ,aurelius to suffer--from ,commodus1 the son who already showed signs of the monster he was to become2 from ,faustina1 the wife whom he loved1 but who cared not for him8 ,was not destiny's hand laid heavy on ,paulus ,aemilius1 who was fully as wise as ,timoleon8 did not both his sons die1 one five days before his triumph in ,rome1 and the other but three days after8 ,what becomes of the refuge1 then1 where wisdom keeps watch over happiness8 ,must we take back all we have said8 and is wisdom yet one more illusion1 by whose aid the soul would fain conciliate reason1 and justify cravings that experience is sure to reject as being opposed to reason8 #ci4 ,nay1 ,in truth1 the sage too must suffer4 ,he suffers2 and suffering forms a constituent part of his wisdom4 ,he will suffer1 perhaps1 more than most men1 for that his nature is far more complete4 ,and being nearer to all mankind1 as the wise ever must be1 his suffering will be but the greater1 for the sorrows of others are his4 ,he will suffer in his flesh1 in his heart1 in his spirit2 for there are sides in all these that no wisdom on earth can dispute against destiny4 ,and so he accepts his suffering1 but is not discouraged thereby2 not for him are the chains that it fastens on those who cringe down before it1 unaware that it is but a messenger sent by a mightier personage1 whom a bend in the road hides from view4 ,needs must the sage1 like his neighbour1 be startled from sleep by the shouts of the truculent envoy1 by the blows at the door that cause the whole house to tremble4 ,he1 too1 must go down and parley4 ,but yet1 as he listens1 his eyes are not fixed on this bringer of evil tidings2 his glance will at times be lifted over the messenger's shoulder1 will scan the dust on the horizon in search of the mighty idea that perhaps may be near at hand4 ,and indeed1 when our thoughts rest on fate1 at such times as happiness enfolds us1 we feel that no great misfortune can be suddenly burst upon us4 ,the proportions will change1 it is true1 when the blow falls2 but it is equally true that before the misfortune can wholly destroy the abiding courage within us1 it first must triumph in our heart over all we adore1 over all we admire1 and love4 ,and what alien power can expel from our soul a feeling and thought that we hurl not our selves from its throne8 ,physical suffering apart1 not a single sorrow exists that can touch us except through our thoughts2 and whence do our thoughts derive the weapons wherewith they attack or defend us8 ,we suffer but little from suffering itself2 but from the manner wherein we accept it overwhelming sorrow may spring4 ,his unhappiness was caused by himself1 said a thinker of one whose eyes never looked over the brutal messenger's shoulder--his unhappiness was caused by himself2 for all misery is inward1 and caused by ourselves4 ,we are wrong in believing that it comes from without4 ,for indeed we create it within us1 out of our very substance4 #dj4 ,it is only in the manner of our facing the event that its active force consists4 ,assemble ten men who1 like ,paulus ,aemilius1 have lost both their sons at the moment when life seemed sweetest1 then will the misfortune appear to vary in every one4 ,misfortune enters within us1 but must of necessity yield obedience to all our commands4 ,even as the order may be that it finds inscribed on the threshold1 so will it sow1 or destroy1 or reap4 ,if my neighbour1 a commonplace man1 were to lose his two sons at the moment when fate had granted his dearest desires1 then would darkness steal over all1 unrelieved by a glimmer of light2 and misfortune itself1 contemptuous of its too facile success1 would leave naught behind but a handful of colourless cinders4 ,nor is it necessary for me to see my neighbour again to be aware that his sorrow will have brought to him pettiness only2 for sorrow does merely restore to us that which our soul had lent in happier days4 #da4 ,but this was the misfortune that befell ,paulus ,aemilius4 ,rome1 still aglow with his triumph1 waited1 dismayed1 wondering what was to happen4 ,were the gods defying the sage1 and how would the sage reply8 ,would the hero be crushed by his sorrow1 or would sorrow acknowledge its master8 ,mankind1 at moments like these1 seems aware that destiny is yet once again making trial of the strength of her arm1 and that change of some kind must befall if her blow crush not where it alights4 ,and see with what eagerness men at such moments will question the eyes of their chiefs for the password against the invisible4 ,but ,paulus ,aemilius has gathered together an assembly of the people of ,rome2 he advances gravely towards them1 and thus does he speak3 ,i1 who never yet feared anything that was human1 have1 amongst such as were divine1 always had1 a dread of fortune as faithless and inconstant2 and1 for the very reason that in this war she had been as a favourable gale in all my affairs1 ,i still expected some change and reflux of things4 ,in one day ,i passed the ,ionian ,sea1 and reached ,corcyra from ,brundisium2 thence in five more ,i sacrificed at ,delphi1 and in other five days came to my forces in ,macedonia1 where1 after ,i had finished the usual sacrifices for the purifying of the army1 ,i entered on my duties1 and in the space of fifteen days put an honourable period to the war4 ,still retaining a jealousy of fortune1 even from the smooth current of my affairs1 and seeing myself secure and free from the danger of any enemy1 ,i chiefly dreaded the change of the goddess at sea1 whilst conveying home my victorious army1 vast spoils1 and a captive king4 ,nay1 indeed1 after ,i was returned to you safe1 and saw the city full of joy1 congratulating1 and sacrifices1 yet still ,i distrusted1 well knowing that fortune never conferred any great benefits that were unmixed and unattended with probabilities of reverse4 ,nor could my mind1 that was still as it were in labour1 and always foreseeing something to befall this city1 free itself from this fear1 until this great misfortune befell me in my own family1 and till1 in the midst of those days set apart for triumph1 ,i carried two of the best of sons1 my only destined successors1 one after another to their funerals4 ,now therefore1 ,i am myself safe from danger1 at least as to what was my greatest care2 and ,i trust and am verily persuaded that1 for the time to come1 fortune will prove constant and harmless unto you2 since she has sufficiently wreaked her jealousy at our great successes on me and mine1 and has made the conqueror as marked an example of human instability as the captive whom he led in triumph1 with this only difference1 that ,perseus1 though conquered1 does yet enjoy his children1 while the conqueror ,aemilius is deprived of his4 #db4 ,this was the ,roman fashion of accepting the greatest sorrow that can befall a man at the moment when sorrow is felt the most keenly--at the moment of his greatest happiness4 ,and there are many ways of accepting misfortune--as many1 indeed1 as there are generous feelings or thoughts to be found on the earth2 and every one of those thoughts1 every one of those feelings1 has a magic wand that transforms1 on the threshold1 the features and vestments of sorrow4 ,job would have said1 ,the ,lord gave and the ,lord hath taken away3 blessed be the name of the ,lord2 and ,marcus ,aurelius perhaps1 ,if it be no longer allowed me to love those ,i loved high above all1 it is doubtless that ,i may learn to love those whom ,i love not yet4 #dc4 ,and let us not think that these are mere empty words wherewith they console themselves1 words that in vain seek to hide the wound that bleeds but the more for the effort4 ,but if it were so1 if empty words could console1 that surely were better than to be bereft of all consolation4 ,and further1 if we have to admit that all this is illusion1 must we not1 in mere justice1 also admit that illusion is the solitary thing that the soul can possess2 and in the name of what other illusion shall we venture to rate this illusion so lightly8 ,ah1 when the night falls and the great sages ,i speak of go back to their lonely dwelling1 and look on the chairs round the hearth where their children once were1 but never shall be again--then1 truly1 can they not escape some part of the sorrow that comes1 overwhelming1 to those whose suffering no noble thought chastens4 ,for it were wrong to attribute to beautiful feeling and thought a virtue they do not possess4 ,there are1 external tears that they cannot restrain2 there are holy hours when wisdom cannot yet console4 ,but1 for the last time let us say it1 suffering we cannot avoid for suffering there ever must be2 still does it rest with ourselves to choose what our suffering shall bring4 ,and let us not think that this choice1 which the eye cannot see1 is truly a very small matter1 and helpless to comfort a sorrow whose cause the eyes never cease to behold4 ,out of small matters like these are all moral joys built up1 and these are profounder far than intellectual or physical joys4 ,translate into words the feeling that spurs on the hero1 and how trivial it seems6 ,insignificant too does the idea of duty appear that ,cato the younger had formed1 when compared with the enormous disturbance it caused in a mighty empire1 or the terrible death it brought on4 ,and yet1 was not ,cato's idea far greater than the disturbance1 or death1 that ensued8 ,do we not feel1 even now1 that ,cato was right8 ,and was not his life rendered truly and nobly happy1 thanks to this very idea1 that the reason of man will not even consider1 so unreasonable does it appear8 ,all that ennobles our life1 all that we respect in ourselves1 the mainsprings of our virtue1 the limits that feeling will even impose upon vices or crimes--all these appear veriest trifles when viewed by the cold eye of reason2 and yet do they fashion the laws that govern every man's life4 ,would life be endurable if we did not obey many truths that our reason rejects8 ,the wretchedest even obeys one of these2 and the more truths there are that he yields to1 the less wretched does he become4 ,the assassin will tell you1 ,i murder1 it is true1 but at least do not steal4 ,and he who has stolen steals1 but does not betray2 and he who betrays would at least not betray his brother4 ,and thus does each one cling for refuge to his last fragment of spiritual beauty4 ,no man can have fallen so low but he still has a retreat in his soul1 where he ever shall find a few drops of pure water1 and be girt up anew with the strength that he needs to go on with his life4 ,for here again reason is helpless1 unable to comfort2 she must halt on the threshold of the thief's last asylum1 even as she must halt on the threshold of ,job's resignation1 of the love of ,marcus ,aurelius1 of the sacrifice made by ,antigone4 ,she halts1 is bewildered1 she does not approve2 and yet knows full well that to rise in revolt were only to combat the light whereof she is shadow2 for amidst all this she is but as one who stands with the sun full upon him4 ,his shadow is there at his feet2 as he moves1 it will follow2 as he rises or stoops1 its outline will alter2 but this shadow is all he commands1 that he masters1 possesses1 of the dazzling light that enfolds him4 ,and so has reason her being1 too1 beneath a superior light1 and the shadow cannot affect the calm1 unvarying splendour4 ,far distant as ,marcus ,aurelius may be from the traitor1 it is still from the selfsame well that they both draw the holy water that freshens their soul2 and this well is not to be found in the intellect4 ,for1 strangely enough1 it is not in our reason that moral life has its being2 and he who would let reason govern his life would be the most wretched of men4 ,there is not a virtue1 a beautiful thought1 or a generous deed1 but has most of its roots hidden far away from that which can be understood or explained4 ,well might man be proud could he trace every virtue1 and joy1 and his whole inward life1 to the one thing he truly possesses1 the one thing on which he can depend--in a word1 to his reason4 ,but do what he will1 the smallest event that arrives will quickly convince him that reason is wholly unable to offer him shelter2 for in truth we are beings quite other than merely reasonable creatures4 #dd4 ,but if it be not our reason that chooses what suffering shall bring us1 whereby is the choice then made8 ,by the life we have lived till then1 the life that has moulded our soul4 ,wisdom matures but slowly2 her fruits shall not quickly be gathered4 ,if my life has not been as that of ,paulus ,aemilius1 there shall be no comfort for me in the thoughts whereby he was consoled1 not though every sage in the world were to come and repeat them to me4 ,the angels that dry our eyes bear the form and the features of all we have said and thought--above all1 of what we have done1 prior to the hour of misfortune4 ,when ,thomas ,carlyle 7a sage1 although somewhat morbid7 lost the wife he had tenderly loved1 with whom he had lived forty years1 then did his sorrow too1 with marvellous exactness1 become as had been the bygone life of his love4 ,and therefore was this sorrow of his majestic and vast2 consoling and torturing alike in the midst of his self-reproach1 his regret1 and his tenderness--as might be meditation or prayer on the shore of a gloomy sea4 ,in the sorrow that floods our heart we have1 as it were1 a synthetic presentment of all the days that are gone2 and as these were1 so shall our sorrow be poignant1 or tender and gentle4 ,if there be in my life no noble or generous deeds that memory can bring back to me1 then1 at the inevitable moment when memory melts into tears1 must these tears1 too1 be bereft of all that is generous or noble4 ,for tears in themselves have no colour1 that they may the better reflect the past life of our soul2 and this reflection becomes our chastisement or our reward4 ,there is but one thing that never can turn into suffering1 and that is the good we have done4 ,when we lose one we love1 our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough4 ,if we always had smiled on the one who is gone1 there would be no despair in our grief2 and some sweetness would cling to our tears1 reminiscent of virtues and happiness4 ,for our recollections of veritable love--which indeed is the act of virtue containing all others--call from our eyes the same sweet1 tender tears as those most beautiful hours wherein memory was born4 ,sorrow is just1 above all2 and even as the cast stands ready awaiting the molten bronze1 so is our whole life expectant of the hour of sorrow1 for it is then we receive our wage4 #de4 ,here1 standing close to the mightiest pillar of destiny's throne1 we may see once again how restricted her power becomes on such as surpass her in wisdom4 ,for she is barbarian still1 and many men tower above her4 ,the commonplace life still supplies her with weapons1 which today are old-fashioned and crude4 ,her mode of attack1 in exterior life1 is as it always has been1 as it was in ,oedipus' days4 ,she shoots like a blear-eyed bow-man1 aiming straight ahead of her2 but if the target be raised somewhat higher than usual1 her arrows fall harmless to earth4 ,suffering1 sorrow1 tears1 regrets--these words1 that vary so slightly in meaning1 are names that we give to emotions which in no two men are alike4 ,if we probe to the heart of these words1 these emotions1 we find they are only the track that is left by our faults2 and there where these faults were noble 7for there are noble faults as there are mean or trivial virtues7 our sorrow will be nearer akin to veritable happiness than the happiness of those whose consciousness still is confined within narrowest limits4 ,would ,carlyle have desired to exchange the magnificent sorrow that flooded his soul1 and blossomed so tenderly there1 for the conjugal joys1 superficial and sunless1 of his happiest neighbour in ,chelsea8 ,and was not ,ernest ,renan's grief1 when ,henriette1 his sister1 died1 more grateful to the soul than the absence of grief in the thousands of others who have no love to give to a sister8 ,shall our pity go forth to him who1 at times1 will weep on the shore of an infinite sea1 or to the other who smiles all his life1 without cause1 alone in his little room8 ,happiness1 sorrow--could we only escape from ourselves for one instant and taste of the hero's sadness1 would there be many content to return to their own superficial delights8 ,do happiness and sorrow1 then1 only exist in ourselves1 and that even when they seem to come from without8 ,all that surrounds us will turn to angel or devil1 according as our heart may be4 ,joan of ,arc held communion with saints1 ,macbeth with witches1 and yet were the voices the same4 ,the destiny whereat we murmur may be other1 perhaps1 than we think4 ,she has only the weapons we give her2 she is neither just nor unjust1 nor does it lie in her province to deliver sentence on man4 ,she whom we take to be goddess1 is a disguised messenger only1 come very simply to warn us on certain days of our life that the hour has sounded at last when we needs must judge ourselves4 #df4 ,men of inferior degree1 it is true1 are not given to judging themselves1 and therefore is it that fate passes judgment upon them4 ,they are the slaves of a destiny of almost unvarying sternness1 for it is only when man has been judged by himself that destiny can be transformed4 ,men such as these will not master1 or alter within them1 the event that they meet2 nay1 they themselves become morally transformed by the very first thing that draws near them4 ,if misfortune befall them1 they grovel before it and stoop down to its level2 and misfortune1 with them1 would seem always to wear its poorest and commonest aspect4 ,they see the finger of fate in every least thing that may happen--be it choice of profession1 a friendship that greets them1 a woman who passes1 and smiles4 ,to them chance and destiny always are one2 but chance will be seldom propitious if accepted as destiny4 ,hostile forces at once take possession of all that is vacant within us1 nor filled by the strength of our soul2 and whatever is void in the heart or the mind becomes a fountain of fatal influence4 ,the ,margaret of ,goethe and ,ophelia of ,shakespeare had perforce to yield meekly to fate1 for they were so feeble that each gesture they witnessed seemed fate's own gesture to them4 ,but yet1 had they only possessed some fragment of ,antigone's strength--the ,antigone of ,sophocles--would they not then have transformed the destinies of ,hamlet and ,faust as well as their own8 ,and if ,othello had taken ,corneille's ,pauline to wife and not ,desdemona1 would ,desdemona's destiny then1 all else remaining unchanged1 have dared to come within reach of the enlightened love of ,pauline8 ,where was it1 in body or soul1 that grim fatality lurked8 ,and though the body may often be powerless to add to its strength1 can this ever be true of the soul8 ,indeed1 the more that we think of it1 the clearer does it become that there could be one destiny only that might truly be said to triumph over man1 the one that might have the power loudly to cry unto all1 ,from this day onward there shall come no more strength to thy soul1 neither strength nor ennoblement4 ,but is there a destiny in the world empowered to hold such language8 #dg4 ,and yet virtue often is chastised1 and the advent of misfortune hastened1 by the soul's very strength2 for the greater our love may be1 the greater the surface becomes we expose to majestic sorrow2 wherefore none the less does the sage never cease his endeavours to enlarge this beautiful surface4 ,yes1 it must be admitted1 destiny is not always content to crouch in the darkness2 her ice-cold hands will at times go prowling in the light1 and seize on more beautiful victims4 ,the tragic name of ,antigone has already escaped me2 and there will1 doubtless1 be many will say1 ,she surely fell victim to destiny1 all her great force notwithstanding2 and is she not the instance we long have been seeking in vain8 ,it cannot be gainsaid3 ,antigone fell into the hands of the ruthless goddess1 for the reason that there lay in her soul three times the strength of any ordinary woman4 ,she died2 for fate had contrived it so that she had to choose between death and what seemed to her a sister's imperative duty4 ,she suddenly found herself wedged between death and love--love of the purest and most disinterested kind1 its object being a shade she would never behold on earth4 ,and if destiny thus has enabled to lure her into the murderous angle that duty and death had formed1 it was only because her soul1 that was loftier far than the soul of the others1 saw1 stretching before it1 the insurmountable barrier of duty--that her poor sister ,ismene could not see1 even when it was shown her4 ,and1 at that moment1 as they both stood there on the threshold of the palace1 the same voices spoke to them2 ,antigone listening only to the voice from above1 wherefore she died2 ,ismene unconscious of any save that which came from below--and she lived4 ,but instil into ,antigone's soul something of the weakness that paralysed ,ophelia and ,margaret1 would destiny then have thought it of service to beckon to death as the daughter of ,oedipus issued from the doorway of ,creon's palace8 ,it was1 therefore1 solely because of the strength of her soul that destiny was able to triumph4 ,and1 indeed1 it is this that consoles the wise and the just--the heroes2 destiny can vanquish them only by the good she compels them to do4 ,other men are like cities with hundred gates1 that she finds unguarded and open2 but the upright man is a fortified city1 with the one gate only--of light2 and this gate remains closed till love be induced to knock1 and to crave admission4 ,other men she compels to obey her2 and destiny1 doing her will1 wills nothing but evil2 but would she subdue the upright1 she needs must desire noble acts4 ,darkness then will no longer enwrap her approach4 ,the upright man is secure in the light that enfolds him2 and only by a light more radiant still can she hope to prevail4 ,destiny then will become more beautiful still than her victim4 ,ordinary men she will place between personal sorrow and the misfortune of others2 but to master the hero or saint1 she must cause him to choose between the happiness of others and the grief that shall fall on himself4 ,ordinary men she lays siege to with the aid of all that is ugly2 against the others she perforce must enlist whatever is noblest on earth4 ,against the first she has thousands of weapons1 the very stones in the road becoming engines of mischief2 but the others she can only attack with one irresistible sword1 the gleaming sword of duty and truth4 ,in ,antigone's story is found the whole tale of destiny's empire on wisdom4 ,jesus who died for us1 ,curtius who leaped into the gulf1 ,socrates who refused to desist from his teaching1 the sister of charity who yields up her life to tending the sick1 the humble wayfarer who perishes seeking to rescue his fellows from death--all these have been forced to choose1 all these bear the mark of ,antigone's glorious wound on their breast4 ,for truly those who live in the light have their magnificent perils also2 and wisdom has danger for such as shrink from self-sacrifice1 though it may be that they who shrink from self-sacrifice are perhaps not very wise4 #dh4 ,pronounce the word destiny1 and in the minds of all men an image arises of gloom and of terror--of death4 ,in their thoughts they regard it1 instinctively1 as the lane that leads straight to the tomb4 ,most often1 indeed1 it is only the name that they give unto death1 when its hand is not visible yet4 ,it is death that looms in the future1 the shadow of death upon life4 ,none can escape his destiny we often exclaim when we hear of death lying in wait for the traveller at the bend of the road4 ,but were the traveller to encounter happiness instead1 we would never ascribe this to destiny2 if we did1 we should have in our mind a far different goddess4 ,and yet1 are not joys to be met with on the highways of life that are greater than any misfortune1 more momentous even than death8 ,may a happiness not be encountered that the eye cannot see8 and is it not of the nature of happiness to be less manifest than misfortune1 to become ever less apparent to the eye as it reaches loftier heights8 ,but to this we refuse to pay heed4 ,the whole village1 the town1 will flock to the spot where some wretched adventure takes place2 but there are none will pause for an instant and let their eyes rest on a kiss1 or a vision of beauty that gladdens the soul1 a ray of love that illumines the heart4 ,and yet may the kiss be productive of joy no less great than the pain that follows a wound4 ,we are unjust2 we never associate destiny with happiness2 and if we do not regard it as being inseparable from death1 it is only to connect it with disaster even greater than death itself4 #di4 ,were ,i to refer to the destiny of ,o,edipus1 ,joan of ,arc1 ,agamemnon1 you would give not a thought to their lives1 but only behold the last moments of all1 the pathway of death4 ,you would stoutly maintain that their destiny was of the saddest1 for that their end was sad4 ,you forget1 however1 that death can never be happy2 but nevertheless it is thus we are given to judging of life4 ,it is as though death swallowed all2 and should accident suddenly end thirty years ,lot unclouded joy1 the thirty years would be hidden away from our eyes by the gloom of one sorrowful hour4 #ej4 ,it is wrong to think of destiny only in connection with death and disaster4 ,when shall we cease to believe that death1 and not life1 is important2 that misfortune is greater than happiness8 ,why1 when we try to sum up a man's destiny1 keep our eyes fixed only on the tears that he shed1 and never on the smiles of his joy8 ,where have we learned that death fixes the value of life1 and not life that of death8 ,we deplore the destiny of ,socrates1 ,duncart1 ,antigone1 and many others whose lives were noble2 we deplore2 their destiny because their end was sudden and cruel2 and we are fain to admit that misfortune prevails over wisdom and virtue alike4 ,but1 first of all1 you yourself are neither just nor wise if you seek in wisdom and justice aught else but wisdom and justice alone4 ,and further1 what right have we thus to sum up an entire existence in the one hour of death8 ,why conclude1 from the fact that ,socrates and ,antigone met with unhappy ends1 that it was their wisdom or virtue brought unhappiness to them8 ,does death occupy more space in life than birth8 ,yet do you not take the sage's birth into account as you ponder over his destiny4 ,happiness or unhappiness arises from all that we do from the day of our birth to the day of our death2 and it is not in death1 but indeed in the days and the years that precede it1 that we can discover a man's true happiness or sorrow--in a word1 his destiny4 ,we seem to imagine that the sage1 whose terrible death is written in history1 spent all his life in sad anticipation of the end his wisdom prepared2 whereas in reality1 the thought of death troubles the wise far less than it troubles the wicked4 ,socrates had far less cause than ,macbeth to dread an unhappy end4 ,and unhappy as his death may have been1 it at least had not darkened his life2 he had not spent all his days in dying preliminary deaths1 as did the ,thane of ,cawdor4 ,but it is difficult for us not to believe that a wound1 that bleeds a few hours1 must crumble away into nothingness all the peace of a lifetime4 #ea4 ,i do not pretend that destiny is just1 that it rewards the good and punishes the wicked4 ,what soul that were sure of reward could ever claim to be good8 ,but we are less just than destiny even1 when it is destiny that we judge4 ,our eyes see only the sage's misfortune1 for misfortune is known to us all2 but we see not his happiness1 for to understand the happiness of the wise and the just whose destinies we endeavour to gauge1 we must needs be possessed of wisdom and justice that shall be fully equal to theirs4 ,when a man of inferior soul endeavours to estimate a great sage's happiness1 this happiness flows through his fingers like water2 yet is it heavy as gold1 and as brilliant as gold1 in the hand of a brother sage4 ,for to each is the happiness given that he can best understand4 ,the sage's misfortune may often resemble the one that befalls other men2 but his happiness has nothing in common with that which he who is not wise terms happiness4 ,in happiness there are far more regions unknown than there are in misfortune4 ,the voice of misfortune is ever the same2 happiness becomes the more silent as it penetrates deeper4 ,when we put our misfortunes into one scale of the balance1 each of us lays1 in the other1 all that he deems to be happiness4 ,the savage flings feathers1 and powder1 and alcohol into the scale2 civilised men some gold1 a few days of delirium2 but the sage will deposit therein countless things our eyes cannot see--all his soul1 it may be1 and even the misfortune that he will have purified4 #eb4 ,there is nothing in all the world more just than happiness1 nothing that will more faithfully adopt the form of our soul1 or so carefully fill the space that our wisdom clings open4 ,yet is it most silent of all that there is in the world4 ,the ,angel of ,sorrow can speak every language--there is not a word but she knows2 but the lips of the ,angel of ,happiness are sealed1 save when she tells of the savage's joys4 ,it is hundreds of centuries past that misfortune was cradled1 but happiness seems even now to have scarcely emerged from its infancy4 ,there are some men have learned to be happy2 why are there none whose great gladness has urged them to lift up their voice in the name of the silent ,archangel who has flooded their soul with light8 ,are we not almost teaching happiness if we do only speak of it2 invoking it1 if we let no day pass without pronouncing its name8 ,and is it not the first duty of those who are happy to tell of their gladness to others8 ,all men can learn to be happy2 and the teaching of it is easy4 ,if you live among those who daily call blessing on life1 it shall not be long ere you will call blessing on yours4 ,smiles are as catching as tears2 and periods men have termed happy1 were periods when there existed some who knew of their happiness4 ,happiness rarely is absent2 it is we that know not of its presence4 ,the greatest felicity avails us nothing if we know not that we are happy2 there is more joy in the smallest delight whereof we are conscious1 than in the approach of the mightiest happiness that enters not into our soul4 ,there are only too many who think that what they have cannot be happiness2 and therefore is it the duty of such as are happy1 to prove to the others that they only possess what each man possesses deep down in the depths of his heart4 ,to be happy is only to have freed one's soul from the unrest of happiness4 ,it were well if1 from time to time1 there should come to us one to whom fortune had granted a dazzling1 superhuman felicity1 that all men regarded with envy2 and if he were very simply to say to us1 ,all is mine that you pray for each day3 ,i have riches1 and youth1 and health2 ,i have glory1 and power1 and love2 and if to-day ,i am truly able to call myself happy1 it is not on account of the gifts that fortune has deigned to accord me1 but because ,i have learned from these gifts to fix my eyes far above happiness4 ,if my marvellous travels and victories1 my strength and my love1 have brought me the peace and the gladness ,i sought1 it is only because they have taught me that it is not in them that the veritable gladness and peace can be found4 ,it was in myself they existed1 before all these triumphs2 and still in myself are they now1 after all my achievement2 and ,i know full well that had but a little more wisdom been mine1 ,i might have enjoyed all ,i now enjoy without the aid of so much good fortune4 ,i know that today ,i am happier still than ,i was yesterday1 because ,i have learned at last that ,i stand in no need of good fortune in order to free my soul1 to bring peace to my thoughts1 to enlighten my heart4 #ec4 ,of this the sage is fully aware1 though no superhuman happiness may have descended upon him4 ,the upright man knows it too1 though he be less wise than the sage1 and his consciousness less fully developed2 for an act of goodness or justice brings with it a kind of inarticulate consciousness that often becomes more effective1 more faithful1 more loving1 than the consciousness that springs into being from the very deepest thought4 ,acts of this nature bring1 above all1 a special knowledge of happiness4 ,strive as we may1 our loftiest thoughts are always uncertain1 unstable2 but the light of a goodly deed shines steadily on1 and is lasting4 ,there are times when deep thought is no more than merely fictitious consciousness2 but an act of charity1 the heroic duty fulfilled--these are true consciousness2 in other words1 happiness in action4 ,the happiness of ,marcus ,aurelius1 who condones a mortal affront2 of ,washington1 giving up power when he feared that his glory was leading his people astray--the happiness of these will differ by far from that of some mean-souled1 venomous creature who might 7if such a thing may be assumed7 by mere chance have discovered some extraordinary natural law4 ,long is the road that leads from the satisfied brain to the heart at rest1 and only such joys will nourish there as are proof against winter's storms4 ,happiness is a plant that thrives far more readily in moral than in intellectual life4 ,consciousness--the consciousness of happiness1 above all--will not choose the intellect as a hiding-place for the treasure it holds most dear4 ,at times it would almost seem as if all that is loftiest in intellect1 fraught with most comfort1 is transformed into consciousness only when passed through an act of virtue4 ,it suffices not to discover new truths in the world of thought or of fact4 ,for ourselves1 a truth only lives from the moment it modifies1 purifies1 sweetens something we have in our soul4 ,to be conscious of moral improvement is of the essence of consciousness4 ,some beings there are1 of vigorous intellect1 whose intellect never is used to discover a fault1 or foster a feeling of charity4 ,and this happens often with women4 ,in cases where a man and a woman have equal intellectual power1 the woman will always devote far less of this power to acquiring moral self-knowledge4 ,and truly the intellect that aims not at consciousness is but beating its wings in the void4 ,loss and corruption needs must ensue if the force of our brain be not at once gathered up in the purest vase of our heart4 ,nor can such an intellect ever know happiness2 nay1 it seems to invite misfortune4 ,for intellect may be of the loftiest1 mightiest1 and yet perhaps never draw near unto joy2 but in the soul that is gentle1 and pure1 and good1 sorrow cannot for ever abide4 ,and even though the boundary line between intellect and consciousness be not always as clearly defined as here we seem to assume1 even though a beautiful thought in itself may be often a goodly action--yet1 none the less will a beautiful thought1 that springs not from noble deed1 or wherefrom noble deed shall not spring1 add but little unto our felicity2 whereas a good deed1 though it father no thought1 will ever fall like soft bountiful rain on our knowledge of happiness4 #ed4 ,how final must his farewell to happiness have been1 exclaims ,renan1 speaking of the renouncement of ,marcus ,aurelius--how final must his farewell to happiness have been1 for him to be capable of such excess6 ,none will ever know how great was the suffering of that poor1 stricken heart1 or the bitterness the waxen brow concealed1 calm always1 and even smiling4 ,it is true that the farewell to happiness is the beginning of wisdom1 and the surest road to happiness4 ,there is nothing sweeter than the return of joy that follows the renouncement of joy1 as there is nothing more exquisite1 of keener1 deeper delight1 than the enchantment of the disenchanted4 ,in these terms does a sage describe a sage's happiness2 but is it true that the happiness of ,marcus ,aurelius1 as of ,renan himself1 arose only from the return of joy that followed the renouncement of joy1 and from the enchantment of the disenchanted8 ,for then were it better that wisdom be less1 that we be the less disenchanted4 ,but what can the wisdom desire that declares itself thus disenchanted8 ,was it not truth that it sought8 and is there a truth that can stifle the love of truth in the depths of a loyal heart8 ,the truth that has taught you that man is wicked and nature unjust2 that justice is futile1 and love without power1 has indeed taught you nothing if it have not at the same time revealed a truth that is greater still1 one that throws on these disillusions a light more brilliant1 more ample1 than the myriad flickering beams it has quenched all around you1 ,for there lurks unspeakable pride1 and pride of the poorest kind1 in thus declaring ourselves satisfied because we can find satisfaction in nothing that is4 ,such satisfaction1 in truth1 is discontent only1 too sluggish to lift its head2 and they only are discontented who no longer would understand4 ,does not the man who conceives it his duty to forswear all happiness renounce something as well that1 as yet1 has not turned into happiness8 ,and besides1 what are the joys to which we bid this somewhat affected farewell8 ,it must surely be right to discard all happiness injurious to others2 but happiness that injures others will not long wear the semblance of happiness in the eyes of the sage4 ,and when his wisdom at length has revealed the profounder joys1 will it not be in all unconsciousness that he renounces those of lesser worth8 ,let us never put faith in the wisdom or gladness that is based on contempt of a single existing thing2 for contempt and renouncement1 its sickly offspring1 offer asylum to none but the weak and the aged4 ,we have only the right to scorn a joy when such scorn is wholly unconscious4 ,but so long as we listen to the voice of contempt or renouncement1 so long as we suffer these to flood our heart with bitterness1 so long must the joy we discard be a joy that we still desire4 ,we must beware lest there enter our soul certain parasitic virtues4 ,and renouncement1 often1 is only a parasite4 ,even if it do not enfeeble our inward life1 it must inevitably bring disquiet4 ,just as bees cease from work at the approach of an intruder into their hive1 so will the virtues and strength of the soul into which contempt or renouncement has entered1 forsake all their tasks1 and eagerly flock round the curious guest that has come in the wake of pride2 for so long as renouncement be conscious1 so long will the happiness found therein have its origin truly in pride4 ,and he who is bent on renouncement had best1 first of all1 forswear the delights of pride1 for these are wholly vain and wholly deceptive4 #ee4 ,within reach of all1 demanding neither boldness nor energy1 is this enchantment of the disenchanted6 ,but what name shall we give to the man who renounces that which brought happiness to him1 and rather would surely lose it to-day than live in fear lest fortune haply deprive him thereof on the morrow8 ,is the mission of wisdom only to peer into the uncertain future1 with ear on the stretch for the footfall of sorrow that never may come--but deaf to the whirr of the wings of the happiness that fills all space8 ,let us not look to renouncement for happiness till we have sought it elsewhere in vain4 ,it is easy to be wise if we be content to regard as happiness the void that is left by the absence of happiness4 ,but it was not for unhappiness the sage was created2 and it is more glorious1 as well as more human1 to be happy and still to be wise4 ,the supreme endeavour of wisdom is only to seek in life for the fixed point of happiness2 but to seek this fixed point in renouncement and farewell to joy1 is only to seek it in death4 ,he who moves not a limb is persuaded1 perhaps1 he is wise2 but was this the purpose wherefor mankind was created8 ,ours is the choice--whether wisdom shall be the honoured wife of our passions and feelings1 our thoughts and desires1 or the melancholy bride of death4 ,let the tomb have its stagnant wisdom1 but let there be wisdom also for the hearth where the fire still burns4 #ef4 ,it is not by renouncing the joys that are near us that we shall grow wise2 but as we grow wise we unconsciously abandon the joys that now are beneath us4 ,even so does the child1 as years come to him1 give up one by one without thinking the games that have ceased to amuse4 ,and just as the child learns far more from his play than from work that is given him1 so does wisdom progress far more quickly in happiness than in misfortune4 ,it is only one side of morality that unhappiness throws into light2 and the man whom sorrow has taught to be wise1 is like one who has loved and never been loved in return4 ,there must always be something unknown to the love whereto no other love has made answer2 and this1 too1 will remain unknown to him whose wisdom is born of sorrow4 ,is happiness truly as happy as people imagine8 was asked of two happy ones once by a philosopher whom protracted injustice had saddened4 ,no2 it is a thing more desirable far1 but also much less to be envied1 than people suppose2 for it is in itself quite other than they can conceive who have never been perfectly happy4 ,to be gay is not to be happy1 nor will he who is happy always be gay4 ,it is only the little ephemeral pleasures that forever are smiling2 and they die away as they smile4 ,but some loftiness once obtained1 lasting happiness becomes no less grave than majestic sorrow4 ,wise men have said it were best for us not to be happy1 so that happiness thus might be always the one thing desired4 ,but how shall the sage1 to whom happiness never has come1 be aware that wisdom is the one thing alone that happiness neither can sadden nor weary8 ,those thinkers have learned to love wisdom with a far more intimate love whose lives have been happy1 than those whose lives have been sad4 ,the wisdom forced into growth by misfortune is different far from the wisdom that ripens beneath happiness4 ,the first1 where it seeks to console1 must whisper of happiness2 the other tells of itself4 ,he who is sad is taught by his wisdom that happiness yet may be his2 he who is happy is taught by his wisdom that he may become wiser still4 ,the discovery of happiness may well be the great aim of wisdom2 and we needs must be happy ourselves before we can know that wisdom itself contains all4 #eg4 ,there are some who are wholly unable to support the burden of joy4 ,there is a courage of happiness as well as a courage of sorrow4 ,it may even be true that permanent happiness calls for more strength in man than permanent sorrow2 for the heart wherein wisdom is not delights more in the expectation of that which it has not yet1 than in the full possession of all it has ever desired4 ,he in whom happiness dwells is amazed at the heart that finds aliment only in fear or in hope1 and that cannot be nourished on what it possesses1 though it possess all it ever desired4 ,we often see men who are strong and morally prudent whom happiness yet overcomes4 ,not finding therein all they sought1 they do not defend it1 or cling to it1 with the energy needful in life4 ,we must have already acquired some not inconsiderable wisdom to be undismayed at perceiving that happiness too has its sorrow1 and to be not induced by this sorrow to think that ours cannot be the veritable happiness4 ,the most precious gift that happiness brings is the knowledge that springs up within us that it is not a thing of mere ecstasy1 but a thing that bids us reflect4 ,it becomes far less rare1 far less inaccessible1 from the moment we know that its greatest achievement is to give to the soul that is able to prize it an increase of consciousness1 which the soul could elsewhere never have found4 ,to know what happiness means is of far more importance to the soul of man than to enjoy it4 ,to be able long to love happiness great wisdom needs must be ours2 but a wisdom still greater for us to perceive1 as we lie in the bosom of cloudless joy1 that the fixed and stable part of that joy is found in the force which1 deep down in our consciousness1 could render us happy still though misfortune wrapped us around4 ,do not believe you are happy till you have been led by your happiness up to the heights whence itself disappears from your gaze1 but leaving you still1 unimpaired1 the desire to live4 #eh4 ,there are some profound thinkers1 such as ,pascal1 ,schopenhauer1 ,hello1 who seem not to have been happy1 for all that the sense of the infinite1 universal1 eternal1 was loftily throned in their soul4 ,but it may well be an error to think that he who gives voice to the multitude's sorrow must himself always be victim to great personal despair4 ,the horizon of sorrow1 surveyed from the height of a thought that has ceased to be selfish1 instinctive1 or commonplace1 differs but little from the horizon of happiness when this last is regarded from the height of a thought of similar nature1 but other in origin4 ,and after all1 it matters but little whether the clouds be golden or gloomy that yonder float over the plain2 the traveller is glad to have reached the eminence whence his eye may at last repose on illimitable space4 ,the sea is not the less marvellous and mysterious to us though white sails be not for ever flitting over its surface2 and neither tempest nor day that is radiant and calm is able to bring enfeeblement unto the life of our soul4 ,enfeeblement comes through our dwelling1 by night and by day1 in the airless room of our cold1 self-satisfied1 trivial1 ungenerous thoughts1 at a time when the sky all around our abode is reflecting the light of the ocean4 ,but there is a difference perhaps between the sage and the thinker4 ,it may be that sorrow will steal over the thinker as he stands on the height he has gained2 but the sage by his side only smiles--and this smile is so loyal1 so human and natural1 that the humblest creature of all must needs understand1 and will gladly welcome it to him1 as it falls like a flower to the foot of the mountain4 ,the thinker throws open the road which leads from the seen to the unseen2 the sage throws open the highway that takes us from that which we love to-day to that which we yet shall love1 and the paths that ascend from that which has ceased to console to that which1 for long time to come1 shall be laden with deep consolation4 ,it is needful1 but not all-sufficient1 to have reflected deeply and boldly on man1 and nature1 and ,god2 for the profoundest thought is of little avail if it contain no germ of comfort4 ,indeed1 it is only thought that the thinker1 as yet1 does nor wholly possess2 as the other thoughts are1 too1 that remain outside our normal1 everyday life4 ,it is easier far to be sad and dwell in affliction than at once to do what time in the end will always compel us to do3 to shake ourselves free from affliction4 ,he who spends his days gloomily1 in constant mistrust of his fellows1 will often appear a profounder thinker than the other1 who lives in the faith and honest simplicity wherein all men should dwell4 ,is there a man can believe he has done all it lay in his power to do if1 as he meditates thus1 in the name of his brethren1 on the sorrows of life1 he hides from them--anxious1 perhaps1 not to weaken his grandiose picture of sorrow--the reasons wherefore he accepts life1 reasons that must be decisive1 since he himself continues to live8 ,the thought must be incomplete surely whose object is not to console4 ,it is easier for you to tell me the cause of your sorrow than1 very simply1 to speak of the deeper1 the weightier reasons that induce your instinct to cling to this life whose distress you bemoan4 ,which of us finds not1 unsought1 many thousands of reasons for sorrow8 ,it is doubtless of service that the sage should point out those that are loftiest1 for the loftiest reasons for sorrow must be on the eve of becoming reasons for gladness and joy4 ,but reasons that have not within them these germs of greatness and happiness--and in moral life open spaces abound where greatness and happiness blend--these are surely not worthy of mention4 ,before we can bring happiness to others1 we first must be happy ourselves2 nor will happiness abide within us unless we confer it on others4 ,if there be a smile upon our lips1 those around us will soon smile too2 and our happiness will become the truer and deeper as we see that these others are happy4 ,it is not seemly that ,i1 who1 willingly1 have brought sorrow to none1 should permit myself to be sad1 said ,marcus ,aurelius1 in one of his noblest passages4 ,but are we not saddening ourselves1 and learning to sadden others1 if we refuse to accept all the happiness offered to man8 #ei4 ,the humble thought that connects a mere satisfied glance1 an ordinary1 everyday act of simple kindness1 or an insignificant moment of happiness1 with something eternal1 and stable1 and beautiful1 is of far greater value1 and infinitely nearer to the mystery of life1 than the grand and gloomy meditation wherein sorrow1 love1 and despair blend with death and destiny and the apathetic forces of nature4 ,appearances often deceive us4 ,hamlet1 bewailing his fate on the brink of the gulf1 seems profounder1 imbued with more passion1 than ,antoninus ,pius1 whose tranquil gaze rests on the self-same forces1 but who accepts them and questions them calmly1 instead of recoiling in horror and calling down curses upon them4 ,our slightest gesture at nightfall seems more momentous by far than all we have done in the day2 but man was created to work in the light1 and not to burrow in darkness4 #fj4 ,the smallest consoling idea has a strength of its own that is not to be found in the most magnificent plaint1 the most exquisite expression of sorrow4 ,the vast1 profound thought that brings with it nothing but sadness is energy burning its wings in the darkness to throw light on the walls of its prison2 but the timidest thought of hope1 or of cheerful acceptance of inevitable law1 in itself already is action in search of a foothold wherefrom to take flight into life4 ,it cannot be harmful for us to acknowledge at times that action begins with reality only1 though our thoughts be never so large and disinterested and admirable in themselves4 ',for all that goes to build up what is truly our destiny is contained in those of our thoughts which1 hurried along by the mass of ideas still obscure1 indistinct1 incomplete1 have had strength sufficient--or been forced1 it may be--to turn into facts1 into gestures1 into feelings and habits4 ,we do not imply by this that the other thoughts should be neglected4 ,those that surround our actual life may perhaps be compared with an army besieging a city4 ,the city once taken1 the bulk of the troops would probably not be permitted to pass through the gates4 ,admission would be doubtless withheld from the irregular part of the army--barbarians1 mercenaries1 all those1 in a word1 whose natural tendencies would lead them to drunkenness1 pillage1 or bloodshed4 ,and it might also very well happen that fully two-thirds of the troops would have taken no part in the final decisive battle4 ,but there often is value in forces that appear to be useless2 and the city would evidently not have yielded to panic and thrown open her gates1 had the well-disciplined force at the foot of the walls not been flanked by the hordes in the valley4 ,so is it in moral life1 too4 ,those thoughts are not wholly vain that have been unable to touch our actual life2 they have helped on1 supported1 the others2 yet is it these others alone that have fully accomplished their mission ,and therefore does it behove us to have in our service1 drawn up in front of the crowded ranks of our sad and bewildered thoughts1 a group of ideas more human and confident1 ready at all times to penetrate vigorously into life4 #fa4 ,even when our endeavour to emerge from reality is due to the purest desire for immaterial good1 one gesture must still be worth more than a thousand intentions2 nor is this that intentions are valueless1 but that the least gesture of goodness1 or courage1 or justice1 makes demands upon us far greater than a thousand lofty intentions4 ,chiromantists pretend that the whole of our life is engraved on our palm2 our life1 according to them1 being a certain number of actions which imprint ineffaceable marks on our flesh1 before or after fulfilment2 whereas not a trace will be left by either thoughts or intentions4 ,if ,i have for many long days cherished projects of murder or treachery1 heroism or sacrifice1 my hand will tell nothing of these2 but if ,i have killed some one--involuntarily perhaps1 imagining he was about to attack me2 or if ,i have rescued a child from the flames that enwrapped it--my hand will bear1 all my life1 the infallible sign of love or of murder4 ,chiromancy maybe delusion or not--it matters but little2 here we are concerned with the great moral truth that underlies this distinction4 ,the place that ,i fill in the universe will never be changed by my thought2 ,i shall be as ,i was to the day of my death2 but my actions will almost invariably move me forwards or backwards in the hierarchy of man4 ,thought is a solitary1 wandering1 fugitive force1 which advances towards us today and perhaps on the morrow will vanish1 whereas every deed presupposes a permanent army of ideas and desires which have1 after lengthy effort1 secured foot-hold in reality4 #fb4 ,but we find ourselves here far away from the noble ,antigone and the eternal problem of unproductive virtue4 ,it is certain that destiny--understood in the ordinary sense of the word as meaning the road that leads only to death--is wholly disregardful of virtue4 ,this is the gulf1 to which all systems of morality must come1 as to a central reservoir1 to be purified or troubled for ever2 and here must each man decide whether he will justify fate or condemn it4 ,antigone's sacrifice may well be regarded as the type of all such as are made in the cause of duty4 ,do we not all of us know of heroic deeds whose reward has been only misfortune8 ,a friend of my own1 one day1 as he lay on the bed he was never to leave save for that other one only which is eternal1 pointed out to me1 one after the other1 the different stratagems fate had contrived to lure him to the distant city1 where the draught of poisonous water awaited him that he was to swallow1 wherefrom he must die4 ,strangely clear were the countless webs that destiny had spun round this life2 and the most trivial event seemed endowed with marvellous malice and forethought4 ,yet had my friend journeyed forth to that city in fulfilment of one of those duties that only the saint1 or the hero1 the sage1 detects on the horizon of conscience4 ,what can we say8 ,but let us leave this point for the moment1 to return to it later4 ,my friend1 had he lived1 would on the morrow have gone to another city1 called thither by another duty2 nor would he have paused to inquire whether it was indeed duty that summoned him4 ,there are beings who do thus obey the commands that their heart whispers low4 ,they fret not at fortune's injustice2 they care not though virtue be thankless2 theirs it is only to fight the injustice of men1 which is the only injustice whereof they1 as yet1 seem aware4 ,ought we never to hesitate1 then8 and is our duty most faithfully done when we ourselves are wholly unconscious that this thing that we do is a duty8 ,is it most essential of all that we should attain a height whence duty no longer is looked on as the choice of our noblest feelings1 but as the silent necessity of all the nature within us8 #fc4 ,there are some who wait and question themselves1 who ponder1 consider1 and then at length decide4 ,they too are right1 for it matters but little whether the duty fulfilled be result of instinct or intellect4 ,the gestures of instinct will often recall the delicate1 naive and vague1 unexpected beauty that clings to the child's least movement1 and touches us deeply2 but the gestures of matured resolve have a beauty1 too1 of their own1 more earnest and statelier1 stronger4 ,it is given to very few hearts to be naively perfect1 nor should we go seek in them for the laws of duty4 ,and besides1 there is many a sober-hued duty that instinct will fail to perceive1 that yet will be clearly espied by mature resolution1 bereft though this be of illusion2 and man's moral value is doubtless established by the number of duties he sees and sets forth to accomplish4 ,it is well that the bulk of mankind should listen to the instinct that prompts them to sacrifice self on the altar of duty1 and that without too close self-questioning2 for long must the questioning be ere consciousness will give forth the same answer as instinct4 ,and those who do thus close their eyes1 and in all meekness follow their instinct1 are in truth following the light that is borne at their head1 though they know it not1 see it not1 by the best of their ancestors4 ,but still this is not the ideal2 and he who gives up the least thing of all for the sake of his brother1 well knowing what it is he gives up and wherefore he does it1 stands higher by far in the scale of morality than the other1 who flings away life without throwing one glance behind4 #fd4 ,in this world there are thousands of weak1 noble creatures who fancy that sacrifice always must be the last word of duty2 thousands of beautiful souls that know not what should be done1 and seek only to yield up their life1 holding that to be virtue supreme4 ,they are wrong2 supreme virtue consists in the knowledge of what should be done1 in the power to decide for ourselves whereto we should offer our life4 ,the duty each holds to be his is by no means his permanent duty4 ,the paramount duty of all is to throw our conception of duty into clearest possible light4 ,the word duty itself will often contain far more error and moral indifference than virtue4 ,clytemnestra devoted her life to revenge--she murdered her husband for that he had slain ,iphigenia2 ,orestes sacrificed his life in avenging ,agamemnon's death on ,clytemnestra4 ,and yet it has only needed a sage to pass by1 saying1 pardon your enemies1 for all duties of vengeance to be banished for ever from the conscience of man4 ,and so may it one day suffice that another sage shall pass by for many a duty of sacrifice too to be exiled4 ,but in the meanwhile there are certain ideas that prevail on renouncement1 resignation1 and sacrifice1 that are far more destructive to the most beautiful moral forces of man than great vices1 or even than crimes4 #fe4 ,there are some occasions in life1 inevitable and of general bearing1 that demand resignation1 which is necessary then1 and good2 but there are many occasions when we still are able to fight2 and at such times resignation is no more than veiled helplessness1 idleness1 ignorance4 ,so is it with sacrifice too1 which indeed is most often the withered arm resignation still shakes in the void4 ,there is beauty in simple self-sacrifice when its hour has come unsought1 when its motive is happiness of others2 but it cannot be wise1 or of use to mankind1 to make sacrifice the aim of one's life1 or to regard its achievement as the magnificent triumph of the spirit over the body4 7,and here let us add that infinitely too great importance is generally ascribed to the triumph of spirit over body1 these pretended triumphs being most often the total defeat of life47 ,sacrifice may be a flower that virtue will pluck on its road1 but it was not to gather this flower that virtue set forth on its travels4 ,it is a grave1 error to think that the beauty of soul is most clearly revealed by the eager desire for sacrifice2 for the soul's fertile beauty resides in its consciousness1 in the elevation and power of its life4 ,there are some1 it is true1 that awake from their sleep at the call of sacrifice only2 but these lack the strength and the courage to seek other forms of moral existence4 ,it is1 as a rule1 far easier to sacrifice self--to give up1 that is1 our moral existence to the first one who chooses to take it--than to fulfil our spiritual destiny1 to accomplish1 right to the end1 the task for which we were created4 ,it is easier far1 as a rule1 to die morally1 nay1 even physically1 for others1 than to learn how best we should live for them4 ,there are too many beings who thus lull to sleep all initiative1 personal life1 and absorb themselves wholly in the idea that they are prepared and ready for sacrifice4 ,the consciousness that never succeeds in travelling beyond this idea1 that is satisfied ever to seek an occasion for giving all that which it has1 is a consciousness whose eyes are sealed1 and that crouches be-numbed at the foot of the mountain4 ,there is beauty in the giving of self1 and indeed it is only by giving oneself that we do1 at the end1 begin to possess ourselves somewhat2 but if all that we some day shall give to our brethren is the desire to give them ourselves1 then are we surely preparing a gift of most slender value4 ,before giving1 let us try to acquire2 for this last is a duty where from we are not relieved by the fact of our giving4 ,let us wait till the hour of sacrifice sounds2 till then1 each man to his work4 ,the hour will sound at last2 but let us not waste all our time in seeking it on the dial of life4 #ff4 ,there are many ways of sacrifice2 and ,i speak not here of the self-sacrifice of the strong1 who know1 as ,antigone knew1 how to yield themselves up when destiny1 taking the form of their brothers' manifest happiness1 calls upon them to abandon their own happiness and their life4 ,i speak of the sacrifice here that is made by the feeble2 that leans for support1 with childish content1 on the staff of its own inanity--that is as an old blind nurse1 who would rock us in the palsied arms of renouncement and useless suffering4 ,on this point let us note what ,john ,ruskin says1 one of the best thinkers of our time3 ,the will of ,god respecting us is that we shall live by each other's happiness and life2 not by each other's misery or death4 ,a child may have to die for its parents2 but the purpose of ,heaven is that it shall rather live for them2 that not by sacrifice1 but by its strength1 its joy1 its force of being1 it shall be to them renewal of strength2 and as the arrow in the hand of the giant4 ,so it is in all other right relations4 ,men help each other by their joy1 not by their sorrow4 ,they are not intended to slay themselves for each other1 but to strengthen themselves for each other4 ,and among the many apparently beautiful things which turn1 through mistaken use1 to utter evil1 ,i am not sure but that the thoughtlessly meek and self-sacrificing spirit of good men must be named as one of the fatallest4 ,they have so often been taught that there is a virtue in mere suffering1 as such 4 4 4 that they accept pain and defeat as if these were their appointed portion2 never understanding that their defeat is not the less to be mourned because it is more fatal to their enemies than to them4 #fg4 ,you are told you should love your neighbour as yourself2 but if you love yourself meanly1 childishly1 timidly1 even so shall you love your neighbour4 ,learn therefore to love yourself with a love that is wise and healthy1 that is large and complete4 ,this is less easy than it would seem4 ,there is more active charity in the egoism of a strenuous clairvoyant soul than in all the devotion of the soul that is helpless and blind4 ,before you exist for others it behoves you to exist for yourself2 before giving1 you first must acquire4 ,be sure that1 if deeply considered1 more value attaches to the particle of consciousness gained than to the gift of your entire unconsciousness4 ,nearly all the great things of this world have been done by men who concerned themselves not at all with ideas of self-sacrifice4 ,plato's thoughts flew on--he paused not to let his tears fall with the tears of the mourners in ,athens2 ,newton pursued his experiments calmly1 nor left them to search for objects of pity or sorrow2 and ,marcus ,aurelius above all 7for here we touch on the most frequent and dangerous form of self-sacrifice7 ,marcus ,aurelius essayed not to dim the brightness of his own soul that he might confer happiness on the inferior soul of ,faustina4 ,and if this was right in the lives of these men1 of ,plato and ,newton and ,marcus ,aurelius1 it is equally right in the life of every soul2 for each soul has1 in its sphere1 the same obligations to self as the soul of the greatest4 ,we should tell ourselves1 once and for all1 that it is the first duty of the soul to become as happy1 complete1 independent1 and great as lies in its power4' ,herein is no egoism1 or pride4 ,to become effectually generous and sincerely humble there must be within us a confident1 tranquil1 and clear comprehension of all that we owe to ourselves4 ,to this end we may sacrifice even the passion for sacrifice2 for sacrifice never should be the means of ennoblement1 but only the sign of our being ennobled4 #fh4 ,let us be ready to offer1 when necessity beckons1 our wealth1 and our time1 and our life1 to our less fortunate brethren1 making them thus an exceptional gift of a few exceptional hours2 but the sage is not bound to neglect his happiness1 and all that environs his life1 in sole preparation for these few exceptional hours of greater or lesser devotion4 ,the truest morality tells us to cling1 above all1 to the duties that return every day1 to acts of inexhaustible brotherly kindness4 ,and1 thus considered1 we find that in the everyday walk of life the solitary thing we can ever distribute among those who march by our side1 be they joyful or sad1 is the confidence1 strength1 the freedom and peace1 of our soul4 ,let the humblest of men1 therefore1 never cease to cherish and lift up his soul1 even as though he were fully convinced that this soul of his should one day be called to console or gladden a ,god4 ,when we think of preparing our soul1 the preparation should never be other than befits a mission divine4 ,in this domain only1 and on this condition1 can man truly give himself1 can there be pre-eminent sacrifice4 ,and think you that when the hour sounds the gift of a ,socrates or ,marcus ,aurelius--who lived many lives1 for many a time had they compassed their whole life around--do you think such a gift is not worth a thousand times more than what would be given by him who had never stepped over the threshold of consciousness8 ,and if ,god there be1 will ,he value sacrifice only by the weight of the blood in our body2 and the blood of the heart--its virtue1 its knowledge of self1 its moral existence--do you think this will all go for nothing8 #fi4 ,it is not by self-sacrifice that loftiness comes to the soul2 but as the soul becomes loftier1 sacrifice fades out of sight1 as the flowers in the valley disappear from the vision of him who toils up the mountain4 ,sacrifice is a beautiful token of unrest2 but unrest should not be nurtured within us for sake of itself4 ,to the soul that is slowly awakening all appears sacrifice2 but few things indeed are so called by the soul that at last lives the life whereof self-denial1 pity1 devotion1 are no longer indispensable roots1 but only invisible flowers4 ,for in truth too many do thus feel the need of destroying--though it be without cause--a happiness1 love1 or a hope that is theirs1 thereby to obtain clearer vision of self in the light of the consuming flame4 ,it is as though they held in their hand a lamp of whose use they know nothing2 as though1 when the darkness comes on1 and they are eager for light1 they scatter its substance abroad on the fire of the stranger4 ,let us beware lest we act as he did in the fable1 who stood watch in the lighthouse1 and gave to the poor in the cabins about him the oil of the mighty lanterns that served to illumine the sea4 ,every soul in its sphere has charge of a lighthouse1 for which there is more or less need4 ,the humblest mother who allows her whole life to be crushed1 to be saddened1 absorbed1 by the less important of her motherly duties1 is giving her oil to the poor2 and her children will suffer1 the whole of their life1 from there not having been1 in the soul of their mother1 the radiance it might have acquired4 ,the immaterial force that shines in our heart must shine1 first of all1 for itself2 for on this condition alone shall it shine for the others as well2 but see that you give not away the oil of your lamp1 though your lamp be never so small2 let your gift be the flame1 its crown4 #gj4 ,in the soul that is noble altruism must1 without doubt1 be always the centre of gravity2 but the weak soul is apt to lose itself in others1 whereas it is in others that the strong soul discovers itself4 ,here we have the essential distinction4 ,there is a thing that is loftier still than to love our neighbour as we love ourselves2 it is to love ourselves in our neighbour4 ,some souls there are whom goodness walks before1 as there are others that goodness follows4 ,let us never forget that1 in communion of soul1 the most generous by no means are they who believe they are constantly giving4 ,a strenuous soul never ceases to take1 though it be from the poorest2 a weak soul always is giving1 even to those that have most2 but there is a manner of giving which truly is only the gesture of powerless greed2 and we should find1 it may be1 if reckoning were kept by a ,god1 that in taking from others we give1 and in giving we take away4 ,often indeed will it so come about that the very first ray of enlightenment will descend on the commonplace soul the day it has met with another which took all that it had to give4 #ga4 ,why not admit that it is not our paramount duty to weep with all those who are weeping1 to suffer with all who are sad1 to expose our heart to the passer-by for him to caress or stab8 ,tears and suffering and wounds are helpful to us only when they do not discourage our life4 ,let us never forget that whatever our mission may be in this world1 whatever the aim of our efforts and hopes1 and the result of our joys and our sorrows1 we are1 above all1 the blind custodians of life4 ,absolutely1 wholly certain is that one thing only2 it is there that we find the only fixed point of human morality4 ,life has been given us--for a reason we know not--but surely not for us to enfeeble it1 or carelessly fling it away4 ,for it is a particular form of life that we represent on this planet--the life of feeling and thought2 whence it follows perhaps that all that inclines to weaken the ardour of feeling and thought is1 in its essence1 immoral4 ,our task let it be then to foster this ardour1 to enhance and embellish it2 let us constantly strive to acquire deeper faith in the greatness of man1 in his strength and his destiny2 or1 we might equally say1 in his bitterness1 weakness1 and wretchedness2 for to be loftily wretched is no less soul-quickening than it is to be loftily happy4 ,after all1 it matters but little whether it be man or the universe that we admire1 so long as something appear truly admirable to us1 and exalt our sense of the infinite4 ,every new star that is found in the sky will lend of its rays to the passions1 and thoughts1 and the courage1 of man4 ,whatever of beauty we see in all that surrounds us1 within us already is beautiful2 whatever we find in ourselves that is great and adorable1 that do we find too in others4 ,if my soul1 on awaking this morning1 was cheered1 as it dwelt on its love1 by a thought that drew near to a ,god--a ,god1 we have said1 who is doubtless no more than the loveliest desire of our soul--then shall ,i behold this same thought astir in the beggar who passes my window the moment thereafter2 and ,i shall love him the more for that ,i understand him the better4 ,and let us not think that love of this kind can be useless2 for indeed1 if one day we shall know the thing that has to be done1 it will only be thanks to the few who love in this fashion1 with an ever-deepening love4 ,from the conscious and infinite love must the true morality spring1 nor can there be greater charity than the effort to ennoble our fellows4 ,but ,i cannot ennoble you if ,i have not become noble myself2 ,i have no admiration to give you if there be naught in myself ,i admire4 ,if the deed ,i have done be heroic1 its truest reward will be my conviction that of an equal deed you are capable too2 this conviction ever will tend to become more spontaneous within me1 and more unconquerable4 ,every thought that quickens my heart brings quickening1 too1 to the love and respect that ,i have for mankind4 ,as ,i rise aloft1 you rise with me4 ,but if1 the better to love you1 ,i deem it my duty to tear off the wings from my love1 your love being wingless as yet2 then shall ,i have added in vain to the plaints and the tears in the valley1 but brought my own love thereby not one whit nearer the mountain4 ,our love should always be lodged on the highest peak we can attain4 ,let our love not spring from pity when it can be born of love2 let us not forgive for charity's sake when justice offers forgiveness2 nor let us try to console there where we can respect4 ,let our one never-ceasing care be to better the love that we offer our fellows4 ,one cup of this love that is drawn from the spring on the mountain is worth a hundred taken from the stagnant well of ordinary charity4 ,and if there be one whom you no longer can love because of the pity you feel1 or the tears that he sheds2 and if he ignore to the end that you love him because you ennobled him at the same time you ennobled yourself1 it matters but little after all2 for you have done what you held to be best1 and the best is not always most useful4 ,should we not invariably act in this life as though the ,god whom our heart desires with its highest desire were watching our every action8 #gb4 ,in a terrible catastrophe that took place but a short time ago1,footnote3 ,the fire at the ,bazar de la ,charite in ,paris4 destiny afforded yet another1 and perhaps the most startling instance of what it pleases men to term her injustice1 her blindness1 or her irresponsibility4 ,she seemed to have singled out for especial chastisement the solitary external virtue that reason has left us--our love for our fellow-man4 ,there must have been some moderately righteous men amongst the victims1 and it seems almost certain that there was at least one whose virtue was wholly disinterested and sincere4 ,it is the presence of this one truly good man that warrants our asking1 in all its simplicity1 the terrible question that rises to our lips4 ,had he not been there we might have tried to believe that this act of seemingly monstrous injustice was in reality composed of particles of sovereign justice4 ,we might have whispered to ourselves that what they termed charity1 out yonder1 was perhaps only the arrogant flower of permanent injustice4 ,we seem unwilling to recognise the blindness of the external forces1 such as air1 fire1 water1 the laws of gravity and others1 with which we must deal and do battle4 ,the need is heavy upon us to find excuses for fate2 and even when blaming her1 we seem to be endeavouring still to explain the causes of her past and her future action1 conscious the while of a feeling of pained surprise1 as though a man we valued highly had done some dreadful deed4 ,we love to idealise destiny1 and are wont to credit her with a sense of justice loftier far than our own2 and however great the injustice whereof she may have been guilty1 our confidence will soon flow back to her1 the first feeling of dismay over2 for in our heart we plead that she must have reasons we cannot fathom1 that there must be laws we cannot divine4 ,the gloom of the world would crush us were we to dissociate morality from fate4 ,to doubt the existence of this high1 protecting justice and virtue1 would seem to us to be denying the existence of all justice and of all virtue4 ,we are no longer able to accept the narrow morality of positive religion1 which entices with reward and threatens with punishment2 and yet we are apt to forget that1 were fate possessed of the most rudimentary sense of justice1 our conception of a lofty1 disinterested morality would fade into thin air4 ,what merit in being just ourselves if we be not convinced of the absolute injustice of fate8 ,we no longer believe in the ideals once held by saints1 and we are confident that a wise ,god will hold of as little account the duty done through hope of recompense1 as the evil done for sake of gain2 and this even though the recompense hoped for be nothing but the self-ensuing peace of mind4 ,we say that ,god1 who must be at least as high as the highest thoughts ,he has implanted in the best of men1 will withhold ,his smile from those who have desired but to please ,him2 and that they only who have done good for the sake of good and as though ,he existed not1 they only who have loved virtue more than they loved ,god ,himself1 shall be allowed to stand by ,his side4 ,and yet1 and for all this1 no sooner does the event confront us1 than we discover that we still are guided by the moral maxims of our childhood4 ,of more avail would be a ,list of chastised virtues4 ,the soul that is quick with life would find its profit therein2 the cause of virtue would gain in vigour and in majesty4 ,let us not forget that it is from the very nonmorality of destiny that a nobler morality must spring into life2 for here1 as everywhere1 man is never so strong with his own native strength as when he realises that he stands entirely alone4 ,as we consider the crowning injustice of fate1 it is the negation of high moral law that disturbs us2 but from this negation there at once arises a moral law that is higher still4 ,he who no longer believes in reward or punishment must do good for the sake of good4 ,even though a moral law seem on the eve of disappearing1 we need have no cause for disquiet2 its place will be speedily filled by a law that is greater still4 ,to attribute morality to fate is but to lessen the purity of our ideal2 to admit the injustice of fate is to throw open before us the ever-widening fields of a still loftier morality4 ,let us not think virtue will crumble1 though ,god ,himself seem unjust4 ,where shall the virtue of man find more everlasting foundation than in the seeming injustice of ,god8 #gc4 ,let us not cavil1 therefore1 at nature's indifference to the sage4 ,it is only because we are not yet wise enough that this indifference seems strange2 for the first duty of wisdom is to throw into light the humbleness of the place in the universe that is filled by man4 ,within his sphere he seems of importance1 as the bee in its cell of honey2 but it were idle to suppose that a single flower the more will blossom in the fields because the queen bee has proved herself a heroine in the hive4 ,we need not fear that we depreciate ourselves when we extol the universe4 ,whether it be ourselves or the entire world that we consider great1 still will there quicken within our soul the sense of the infinite1 which is of the life-blood of virtue4 ,what is an act of virtue that we should expect such mighty reward8 ,it is within ourselves that reward must be found1 for the law of gravitation will not swerve4 ,they only who know not what goodness is are ever clamouring for the wage of goodness4 ,above all1 let us never forget that an act of goodness is of itself always an act of happiness4 ,it is the flower of a long inner life of joy and contentment2 it tells of peaceful hours and days on the sunniest heights of our soul4 ,no reward coming after the event can compare with the sweet reward that went with it4 ,the upright man who perished in the catastrophe ,i mentioned was there because his soul had found a peace and strength in virtue that not happiness1 love1 or glory could have given him4 ,were the flames to retreat before such men1 were the waters to open and death to hesitate1 what were righteousness or heroism then8 ,would not the true happiness of virtue be destroyed8 virtue that is happy because it is noble and pure1 that is noble and pure because it desires no reward8 ,there may be human joy in doing good with definite purpose1 but they who do good expecting nothing in return know a joy that is divine4 ,where we do evil our reasons mostly are known to us1 but our good deed becomes the purer for our ignorance of its motive4 ,would we know how to value the righteous man1 we have but to question him as to the motives of his righteousness4 ,he will probably be the most truly righteous who is least ready with his answer4 ,some may suppose that as intellect widens many a motive for heroism will be lost to the soul2 but it should be borne in mind that the wider intellect brings with it an ideal of heroism loftier and more disinterested still4 ,and this much at least is certain3 he who thinks that virtue stands in need of the approval of destiny or of worlds1 has not yet within him the veritable sense of virtue4 ,truly to act well we must do good because of our craving for good1 a more intimate knowledge of goodness being all we expect in return4 ,with no witness save his heart alone1 said ,st4 ,just4 ,in the eyes of a ,god there must surely be marked distinction between the soul of the man who believes that the rays of a virtuous deed shall shine through furthest space1 and the soul of the other who knows they illumine his heart alone4 ,there may be greater momentary strength in the overambitious truth1 but the strength that is brought by the humble human truth is far more earnest and patient4 ,is it wiser to be as the soldier who imagines that each blow he strikes brings victory nearer1 or as the other who knows his little account in the combat but still fights sturdily on8 ,the upright man would scorn to deceive his neighbour1 but is ever unduly inclined to regard some measure of self-deception as inseparable from his ideal4 ,if there were profit in virtue1 then would the noblest of men be compelled to seek happiness elsewhere2 and ,god would destroy their main object in life were ,he to reward them often4 ,nothing is indispensable1 perhaps1 or even necessary2 and it may be that if the joy of doing good for sake of good were taken from the soul1 it would find other1 purer joys2 but in the meantime1 it is the most beautiful joy we know1 therefore let us respect it4 ,let us not resent the misfortunes that sometimes befall virtue1 lest we at the same time disturb the limpid essence of its happiness4 ,the soul that has this happiness dreams no more of reward1 than others expect punishment because of their wickedness4 ,they only are ever clamouring for justice who know it not in their lives4 #gd4 ,there is wisdom in the ,hindu saying3 ,work as they work1 who are ambitious4 ,respect life1 as they respect it who desire it4 ,be happy1 as they are happy who live for happiness alone4 ,and this is indeed the central point of human wisdom--to act as though each deed must bear wondrous1 everlasting1 fruit1 and yet to realise the insignificance of a just action before the universe2 to grasp the disproportion of things1 and yet to march onwards as though the proportions were established by man2 to keep our eyes fixed on the great sphere1 and ourselves to move in the little sphere with as much confidence and earnestness1 with as much assurance and satisfaction1 as though the great sphere were contained within it4 ,is there need of illusion to keep alive our desire for good8 then must this desire stand confessed as foreign to the nature of man4 ,it is a mistake to imagine that the heart will long cherish within it the ideas that reason has banished2 but within the heart there is much that reason may take to itself4 ,and at last the heart becomes the refuge to which reason is apt to fly1 ever more and more simply1 each time that the night steals upon it2 for it is to the heart as a young1 clairvoyant girl1 who still at times needs advice from her blind1 but smiling1 mother4 ,there comes a moment in life when moral beauty seems more urgent1 more penetrating1 than intellectual beauty2 when all that the mind has treasured must be bathed in the greatness of soul1 lest it perish in the sandy desert1 forlorn as a river that seeks in vain for the sea4 #ge4 ,but let us exaggerate nothing when dealing with wisdom1 though it be wisdom itself4 ,the external forces1 we know1 will not yield to the righteous man2 but still he is absolute lord of most of the inner powers2 and these are for ever spinning the web of nearly all our happiness and sorrow4 ,we have said elsewhere that the sage1 as he passes by1 intervenes in countless dramas4 ,indeed his mere presence suffices to arrest most of the calamities that arise from error or evil4 ,they cannot approach him1 or even those who are near him4 ,a chance meeting with creature endowed with simple and loving wisdom has stayed the hands of men who else had committed countless acts of folly or wickedness2 for in life most characters are subordinate1 and it is chance alone that determines whether the track which they are to follow shall be that of suffering or peace4 ,the atmosphere around ,jean-,jacques ,rousseau was heavy with lamentation and treachery1 delirium1 deceit1 and cunning2 whereas ,jean ,paul moved in the midst of loyalty and nobility1 the centre of peace and love4 ,we subdue that in others which we have learned to subdue in ourselves4 ,around the upright man there is drawn a wide circle of peace1 within which the arrows of evil soon cease to fall2 nor have his fellows the power to inflict moral suffering upon him4 ,for indeed if our tears can flow because of our enemies' malice1 it is only because we ourselves would fain make our enemies weep4 ,if the shafts of envy can wound and draw blood1 it is only because we ourselves have shafts that we wish to throw2 if treachery can wring a groan from us1 we must be disloyal ourselves1 ,only those weapons can wound the soul that it has not yet sacrificed on the altar of ,love4 #gf4 ,the dramas of virtue are played on a stage whose mysteries not even the wisest can fathom4 ,it is only as the last word is spoken that the curtain is raised for an instant2 we know nothing of all that preceded1 of the brightness or gloom that enwrapped it4 ,but of one thing at least the just man may be certain2 it will be in an act of charity1 or justice1 that his destiny will meet him face to face4 ,the blow must inevitably find him prepared1 in a state of grace1 as the ,christian calls it2 in other words1 in a state of inner happiness4 ,and that in itself bars the door on evil destiny within us1 and closes most of the gates by which external misfortune can enter4 ,as our conception of duty and happiness gains in dignity1 so does the sway of moral suffering become the more restricted and purer4 ,and is not moral suffering the most tyrannical weapon in the armoury of destiny8 ,our happiness mainly depends on the freedom that reigns within us2 a freedom that widens with every good deed1 and contracts beneath acts of evil4 ,not metaphorically1 but literally1 does ,marcus ,aurelius free himself each time he discovers a new truth in indulgence1 each time that he pardons1 each time he reflects4 ,still less of a metaphor is it to declare that ,macbeth enchains himself anew with every fresh crime4 ,and if this be true of the great crimes of kings and the virtues of heroes1 it is no less true of the humblest faults and most hidden virtues of ordinary life4 ,many a youthful ,marcus ,aurelius is still about us2 many a ,macbeth1 who never stirs from his room4 ,however imperfect our conception of virtue1 still let us cling to it2 for a moment's forgetfulness exposes us to all the malignant forces from without4 ,the simplest lie to myself1 buried though it may be in the silence of my soul1 may yet be as dangerous to my inner liberty as an act of treachery on the marketplace4 ,and from the moment that my inner liberty is threatened1 destiny prowls around my external liberty as stealthily as a beast of prey that has long been tracking its victim4 #gg4 ,can we conceive a situation in life wherein a man who is truly wise and noble can be made to suffer as profoundly as the man who follows evil8 ,in this world it is far more certain that vice will be punished1 than that virtue will meet with reward2 yet we must bear in mind that it is the habit of crime to shriek aloud beneath its punishment1 whereas virtue rewards itself in the silence that is the walled garden of its happiness4 ,evil drags horrid catastrophe behind it2 but an act of virtue is only a silent offering to the profoundest laws of life2 and therefore1 doubtless1 does the balance of mighty justice seem more ready to incline beneath deeds of darkness than beneath those of light4 ,but if we can scarcely believe that happiness in crime be possible1 have we more warrant for faith in the unhappiness of virtue8 ,we know that the executioner can stretch ,spinoza on the rack1 and that terrible disease will spare ,antoninus ,pius no more than ,goneril or ,regan2 but pain such as this belongs to the animal1 not the human1 side of man4 ,wisdom has indeed sent science1 the youngest of her sisters1 into the realm of destiny1 with the mission to bring the zone of physical suffering within ever-narrowing limits2 but there are inaccessible regions within that realm1 where disaster ever will rule4 ,some stricken ones there will always be1 victims to irreducible injustice2 and yet will the true wisdom1 in the midst of its sorrow1 only be fortified thereby1 only gain in self-reliance and humanity all that it1 may lose in more mystic qualities4 ,we become truly just only when it is finally borne home to us that we must search within ourselves for our model of justice4 ,again1 it is the injustice of destiny that restores man to his place in the universe4 ,it is not well that he should for ever be pasting anxious glances about him1 like the child that has strayed from its mother's side4 ,nor need we believe that these disillusions must necessarily give rise to moral discouragement2 for the truth that seems discouraging does in reality only transform the courage of those strong enough to accept it2 and1 in any event1 a truth that disheartens1 because it is true1 is still of far more value than the most stimulating of falsehoods4 ,but indeed no truth can discourage1 whereas much that passes as courage only bears the semblance thereof4 ,the thing that enfeebles the weak will but help to strengthen the strong4 ,do you remember the day1 wrote a woman to her lover1 when we sat together by the window that looked on to the sea1 and watched the meek procession of white-sailed ships as they followed each other into harbour8 4 4 4 ,ah6 how that day comes back to me6 4 4 4 ,do you remember that one ship had a sail that was nearly black1 and that she was the last to come in8 ,and do you remember1 too1 that the hour of separation was upon us1 and that the arrival of the last boat of all was to be our signal for departure8 ,we might perhaps have found cause for sadness in the gloomy sail that fluttered at her mast2 but we who loved each other had 'accepted' life1 and we only smiled as we once more recognised the kinship of our thoughts4 ,yes1 it is thus we should act2 and though we cannot always smile as the black sail heaves in sight1 yet is it possible for us to find in our life something that shall absorb us to the exclusion of sadness1 as her love absorbed the woman whose words ,i have quoted4 ,complaints of injustice grow less frequent as the brain and the heart expand4 ,it is well to remind ourselves that in this world1 whose fruit we are1 all that concerns us must necessarily be more conformable with our existence than the most beneficent law of our imagination4 ,the time has arrived perhaps when man must learn to place the centre of his joys and pride elsewhere than within himself4 ,as this idea takes firmer root within us1 so do we become more conscious of our helplessness beneath its overwhelming force2 yet is it at the same time borne home to us that of this force we ourselves form part2 and even as we writhe beneath it1 we are compelled to admire1 as the youthful ,telemachus admired the power of his father's arm4 ,our own instinctive actions awaken within us an eager curiosity1 an affectionate1 pleased surprise3 why should we not train ourselves thus to regard the instinctive actions of nature8 ,we love to throw the dim light of our reason on to our unconsciousness3 why not let it play on what we term the unconsciousness of the universe8 ,we are no less deeply concerned with the one than the other4 ,after he has become acquainted with the power that is in him1 said a philosopher1 one of the highest privileges of man is to realise his individual powerlessness4 ,out of the very disproportion between the infinite which kills us and this nothing that we are1 there arises within us a sensation that is not without grandeur2 we feel that we would rather be crushed by a mountain than done to death by a pebble1 as in war we would rather succumb beneath the charge of thousands than fall victim to a single arm4 ,and as our intellect lays bare to us the immensity of our helplessness1 so does it rob defeat of its sting4 ,who knows8 ,we are already conscious of moments when the something that has conquered us seems nearer to ourselves than the part of us that has yielded4 ,of all our characteristics1 self-esteem is the one that most readily changes its home1 for we are instinctively aware that it has never truly formed part of us4 ,the self-esteem of the courtier who waits on the mighty king soon finds more splendid lodging in the king's boundless power2 and the disgrace that may befall him will wound his pride the less for that it has descended from the height of a throne4 ,were nature to become less indifferent1 it would no longer appear so vast4 ,our unfettered sense of the infinite cannot afford to dispense with one particle of the infinite1 with one particle of its indifference2 and there will ever remain something within our soul that would rather weep at times in a world that knows no limit1 than enjoy perpetual happiness in a world that is hemmed in4 ,if destiny were invariably just in her dealings with the wise1 then doubtless would the existence of such a law furnish sufficient proof of its excellence2 but as it is wholly indifferent1 it is better so1 and perhaps even greater2 for what the actions of the soul may lose in importance thereby does but go to swell the dignity of the universe4 ,and loss of grandeur to the sage there is none2 for he is as profoundly sensitive to the greatness of nature as to the greatness that lurks within man4 ,why harass our soul with endeavour to locate the infinite8 ,as much of it as can be given to man will go to him who has learned to wonder4 #gh4 ,do you know a novel of ,balzac1 belonging to the ,celibataires series1 called ,pierrette8 ,it is not one of ,balzac's masterpieces1 but it has points of much interest for us4 ,it is the story of an orphaned ,breton girl1 a sweet1 innocent child1 who is suddenly snatched away1 by her evil star1 from the grandparents who adore her1 and transferred to the care of an aunt and uncle4 ,monsieur ,rogron and his sister ,sylvia4 ,a hard1 gloomy couple1 these two2 retired shopkeepers1 who live in a dreary house in the back streets of a dreary country town4 ,their celibacy weighs heavily upon them2 they are miserly1 and absurdly vain2 morose1 and instinctively full of hatred4 ,the poor inoffensive girl has hardly set foot in the house before her martyrdom begins4 ,there are terrible questions of money and economy1 ambitions to be gratified1 marriages to be prevented1 inheritances to be turned aside3 complications of every kind4 ,the neighbours and friends of the ,rogrons behold the long and painful sufferings of the victim with unruffled tranquillity1 for their every natural instinct leads them to applaud the success of the stronger4 ,and at last ,pierrette dies1 as unhappily as she has lived2 while the others all triumph--the ,rogrons1 the detestable lawyer ,vinet1 and all those who had helped them2 and the subsequent happiness of these wretches remains wholly untroubled4 ,fate would even seem to smile upon them2 and ,balzac1 carried away in spite of himself by the reality of it all1 ends his story1 almost regretfully1 with these words3 ,how the social villainies of this world would thrive under our laws if there were no ,god6 ,we need not go to fiction for tragedies of this kind2 there are many houses in which they are matters of daily occurrence4 ,i have borrowed this instance from ,balzac's pages because the story lay there ready to hand2 the chronicle1 day by day1 of the triumph of injustice4 ,the very highest morality is served by such instances1 and a great lesson is taught2 and perhaps the moralists are wrong who try to weaken this lesson by finding excuses for the iniquities of fate4 ,some are satisfied that ,god will give innocence its due reward4 ,others tell us that in this case it is not the victim who has the greatest claim upon our sympathy4 ,and these are doubtless right1 from many points of view2 for little ,pierrette1 miserable though she was1 and cruelly tormented1 did yet experience joys that her tyrants never would know4 ,in the midst of her sorrow1 she remained gentle1 and tender1 and loving2 and therein lies greater happiness than in hiding cruelty1 hatred1 and selfishness beneath a smile4 ,it is sad to love and be unloved1 but sadder still to be unable to love4 ,and how great is the difference between the petty1 sordid desires1 the grotesque delights1 of the ,rogrons1 and the mighty longing that filled the child's soul as she looked forward to the time when injustice at last should cease6 ,little wistful ,pierrette was perhaps no wiser than those about her2 but before such as must bear unmerited suffering there stretches a wide horizon1 which here and again takes in the joys that only the loftiest know2 even as the horizon of the earth1 though not seen from the mountain peak1 would appear at times to be one with the corner-stone of heaven4 ,the injustice we commit speedily reduces us to petty1 material pleasures2 but1 as we revel in these1 we envy our victim2 for our tyranny has thrown open the door to joys whereof we cannot deprive him--joys that are wholly beyond our reach1 joys that are purely spiritual4 ,and the door that opens wide to the victim is sealed in the tyrant's soul2 and the sufferer breathes a purer air than he who has made him suffer4 ,in the hearts of the persecuted there is radiance1 where those who persecute have only gloom2 and is it not on the light within us that the wellbeing of happiness depends8 ,he who brings sorrow with him stifles more happiness within himself than in the man he overwhelms4 ,which of us1 had he to choose1 but would rather be ,pierrette than ,rogron8 ,the instinct of happiness within us needs no telling that he who is morally right must be happier than he who is wrong1 though the wrong be done from the height of a throne4 ,and1 even though the ,rogrons be unaware of their ,injustice1 it alters nothing2 for1 be we aware or unaware of the evil we commit1 the air we breathe will still be heavily charged4 ,nay1 more--to him who knows he does wrong there may come1 perhaps1 the desire to escape from his prison2 but the other will die in his cell1 without even his thoughts having travelled beyond the gloomy walls that conceal from him the true destiny of man4 #gi4 ,why seek justice where it cannot be8 and where can it be1 save in our soul8 ,its language is the natural language of the spirit of man2 but this spirit must learn new words ere it can travel in the universe4 ,justice is the very last thing of all wherewith the universe concerns itself4 ,it is equilibrium that absorbs its attention2 and what we term justice is truly nothing but this equilibrium transformed1 as honey is nothing but a transformation of the sweetness found in the flower4 ,outside man there is no justice2 within him injustice cannot be4 ,the body may revel in ill--gotten pleasure1 but virtue alone can bring contentment to the soul4 ,our inner happiness is measured out to us by an incorruptible ,judge and the mere endeavour to corrupt him still further reduces the sum of the final1 veritable happiness he lets fall into the shining scale4 ,it is lamentable enough that a ,rogron should be able to torture a helpless child1 and darken the few hours of life the chance of the world had given2 but injustice there would be only if his wickedness procured him the inner happiness and peace1 the elevation of thought and habit1 that long years spent in love and meditation had procured for ,spinoza and ,marcus ,aurelius4 ,some slight intellectual satisfaction there may be in the doing of evil2 but none the less does each wrongful deed clip the wings of our thoughts1 till at length they can only crawl amidst all that is fleeting and personal4 ,to commit an act of injustice is to prove we have not yet attained the happiness within our grasp4 ,and in evil--reduce things to their primal elements1 and you shall find that even the wicked are seeking some measure of peace1 a certain up-lifting of soul4 ,they may think themselves happy1 and rejoice for such dole as may come to them2 but would it have satisfied ,marcus ,aurelius1 who knew the lofty tranquillity1 the great quickening of the soul8 ,show a vast lake to the child who has never beheld the sea1 it will clap its hands and be glad1 and think the sea is before it2 but therefore none the less does the veritable sea exist4 ,it may be that a man will find happiness in the puny little victories that his vanity1 envy1 or indifference win for him day after day4 ,shall we begrudge him such happiness1 we1 whose eyes can see further8 ,shall we strive for his consciousness of life1 for the religion that pleases his soul1 for the conception of the universe that justifies his cares8 ,yet out of these things are the banks made between which happiness flows2 and as they are1 so shall the river be1 in shallowness or in depth4 ,he may believe that there is a ,god1 or that there is no ,god2 that all ends in this world1 or that it is prolonged into the next2 that all is matter1 or that all is spirit4 ,he will believe these things much as wise men believe them2 but do you think his manner of belief can be the same8 ,to look fearlessly upon life2 to accept the laws of nature1 not with meek resignation1 but as her sons1 who dare to search and question2 to have peace and confidence within our soul--these are the beliefs that make for happiness4 ,but to believe is not enough2 all depends on how we believe4 ,i may believe that there is no ,god1 that ,i am self-contained1 that my brief sojourn here serves no purpose2 that in the economy of this world without limit my existence counts for as little as the evanescent hue of a flower--,i may believe all this1 in a deeply religious spirit1 with the infinite throbbing within me2 you may believe in one all-powerful ,god1 who cherishes and protects you1 yet your belief may be mean1 and petty1 and small4 ,i shall be happier than you1 and calmer1 if my doubt is greater1 and nobler1 and more earnest than is your faith2 if it has probed more deeply into my soul1 traversed wider horizons1 if there are more things it has loved4 ,and if the thoughts and feelings on which my doubt reposes have become vaster and purer than those that support your faith1 then shall the ,god of my disbelief become mightier and of supremer comfort than the ,god to whom you cling4 ,for1 indeed1 belief and unbelief are mere empty words2 not so the loyalty1 the greatness and profoundness of the reasons wherefore we believe or do not believe4 #hj4 ,we do not choose these reasons2 they are rewards that have to be earned4 ,those we have chosen are only slaves we have happened to buy2 and their life is but feeble2 they hold themselves shyly aloof1 ever watching for a chance to escape4 ,but the reasons we have deserved stand faithfully by us2 they are so many pensive ,antigones1 on whose help we may ever rely4 ,nor can such reasons as these be forcibly lodged in the soul2 for indeed they must have dwelt there from earliest days1 have spent their childhood there1 nourished on our every thought and action2 and tokens recalling a life of devotion and love must surround them on every side4 ,and as they throw deeper root--as the mists clear away from our soul and reveal a still wider horizon1 so does the horizon of happiness widen also2 for it is only in the space that our thoughts and our feelings enclose that our happiness can breathe in freedom4 ,it demands no material space1 but finds ever too narrow the spiritual fields we throw open2 wherefore we must unceasingly endeavour to enlarge its territory1 until such time as1 soaring up on high1 it finds sufficient aliment in the space which it does of itself fling open4 ,then it is1 and then only1 that happiness truly illumines the most eternal1 most human part of man2 and indeed all other forms of happiness are merely unconscious fragments of this great happiness1 which1 as it reflects and looks before it1 is conscious of no limit within itself or in all that surrounds it4 #ha4 ,this space must dwindle daily in those who follow evil1 seeing that their thoughts and feelings must of necessity dwindle also4 ,but the man who has risen somewhat will soon forsake the ways of evil2 for look deep down enough and you shall ever find its origin in straitened feeling and stunted thought4 ,he does evil no longer1 because his thoughts are purer and higher2 and now that he is incapable of evil1 his thoughts will become purer still4 ,and thus do our thoughts and actions1 having won their way into the placid heaven where no barrier restrains the soul1 become as inseparable as the wings of a bird2 and what to the bird was only a law of equilibrium is here transformed into a law of justice4 #hb4 ,who can tell whether the satisfaction derived from evil can ever penetrate to the soul1 unless there mingle with it a vague desire1 a promise1 a distant hope1 of goodness or of pity8 ,the joy of the wretch whose victim lies in his power is perhaps unredeemed in its gloom and futility1 save by the thought of mercy that flashes across him4 ,evil at times would seem compelled to beg a ray of light from virtue1 to shed lustre on its triumph4 ,is it possible for a man to smile in his hatred and not borrow the smile of love8 ,but the smile will be short-lived1 for here1 as everywhere1 there is no inner injustice4 ,within the soul the high-water mark of happiness is always level with that of justice or charity--which words ,i use here indifferently1 for indeed what is charity or love but justice with naught to do but count its jewels8 ,the man who goes forth to seek his happiness in evil does merely prove thereby that he is less happy than the other who watches1 and disapproves4 ,and yet his object is identical with that of the upright man4 ,he too is in search of happiness1 of some sort of peace and certainty4 ,of what avail to punish him8 ,we do not blame the poor because their home is not a palace2 it is sad enough to be compelled to live in a hovel4 ,he whose eyes can see the invisible1 knows that in the soul of the most unjust man there is justice still3 justice1 with all her attributes1 her stainless garments and holy activity4 ,he knows that the soul of the sinner is ever balancing peace and love1 and the consciousness of life1 no less scrupulously than the soul of philosopher1 saint1 or hero2 that it watches the smiles of earth--and sky1 and is no less aware of all whereby those smiles are destroyed1 degraded1 and poisoned4 ,we are not wrong1 perhaps1 to be heedful of justice in the midst of a universe that heeds not at all2 as the bee is not wrong to make honey in a world that itself can make none4 ,but we are wrong to desire an external justice1 since we know that it does not exist4 ,let that which is in us suffice4 ,all is for ever being weighed and judged in our soul4 ,it is we who shall judge ourselves2 or rather1 our happiness is our judge4 #hc4 ,it may be urged that virtue is subject to defeat and disappointment1 no less than vice2 but the defeats and disappointments of virtue bring with them no gloom or distress1 for they do but tend to soothe and enlighten our thoughts4 ,an act of virtue may sink into the void1 but it is then1 most of all1 that we learn to gauge the depths of life and of soul2 and often will it fall into these depths like a radiant stone1 beside which our thoughts loom pale4 ,with every vicious scheme that fails before the innocence of ,pierrette1 ,madame ,rogron's soul shrivels anew2 whereas the clemency of ,titus1 falling on thankless soil1 docs but induce him to lift his eyes on high1 far beyond love or pardon4 ,there is no gain in shutting out the world1 though it be with walls of righteousness4 ,the last gesture of virtue should be that of an angel flinging open the door4 ,we should welcome our disillusions2 for were it the will of destiny that our pardon should always transform an enemy into a brother1 then should we go to our grave still unaware of all that springs to light within us beneath the act of unwise clemency1 whose unwisdom we never regret4 ,we should die without once having matched all that is best in our soul against the forces that hedge life around4 ,the kindly deed that is wasted1 the lofty or only loyal thought that falls on barren ground--these too have their value1 for the light they throw differs far from the radiance triumphant virtue suffuses2 and thus may we see many things in their differing aspect4 ,there were surely much joy in the thought that love must invariably triumph2 but greater joy is there still in tearing aside this illusion1 am marching straight on to the truth4 ,man has been but too prone1 said a philosopher1 whom death carried off too soon--man has been but too prone1 through all the course of his history1 to lodge his dignity within his errors1 and to look upon truth as a thing that depreciated himself4 ,it may sometimes seem less glorious than illusion1 but it has the advantage of being true4 ,in the whole domain of thought there is nothing loftier than truth4 ,and there is no bitterness herein1 for indeed to the sage truth can never be bitter4 ,he1 too1 has had his longings in the past1 has conceived that truth might move mountains1 that a loving act might for ever soften the hearts of men2 but to-day he has learned to prefer that this should not be so4 ,nor is it overweening pride that thus has changed him2 he does not think himself more virtuous than the universe2 it is his insignificance in the universe that has been made clear to him4 ,it is no longer for the spiritual fruit it bears that he tends the love of justice he has found implanted in his soul1 but for the living flowers that spring up within him1 and because of his deep respect for all created things4 ,he has no curses for the ungrateful friend1 nor even for ingratitude itself4 ,he does not say1 ,i am better than that man1 or ,i shall not fall into that vice4 ,but he is taught by ingratitude that benevolence contains joys that are greater than those that gratitude can bestow2 joys that are less personal1 but more in harmony with life as a whole4 ,he finds more pleasure in the attempt to understand that which is1 than in the struggle to believe that which he desires4 ,for a long time he has been like the beggar who was suddenly borne away from his hut and lodged in a magnificent palace4 ,he awoke and threw uneasy glances about him1 seeking1 in that immense hall1 for the squalid things he remembered to have had in his tiny room4 ,where were the hearth1 the bed1 the table1 stool1 and basin8 ,the humble torch of his vigils still trembled by his side1 but its light could not reach the lofty ceiling4 ,the little wings of flame threw their feeble flicker on to a pillar close by1 which was all that stood out from the darkness4 ,but little by little his eyes grew accustomed to his new abode4 ,he wandered through room after room1 and rejoiced as profoundly at all that his torch left in darkness as at all that it threw into light4 ,at first he could have wished in his heart that the doors had been somewhat less lofty1 the staircases not quite so ample1 the galleries less lost in gloom2 but as he went straight before him1 he felt all the beauty and grandeur of that which was yet so unlike the home of his dream4 ,he rejoiced to discover that here bed and table were not the centre round which all revolved1 as it had been with him in his hut4 ,he was glad that the palace had not been built to conform with the humble habits his misery had forced upon him4 ,he even learned to admire the things that defeated his hopes1 for they enabled his eyes to see deeper4 ,the sage is consoled and fortified by everything that exists1 for indeed it is of the essence of wisdom to seek out all that exists1 and to admit it within its circle4 #hd4 ,wisdom even admits the ,rogrons2 for she holds life of profounder interest than even justice or virtue2 and where her attention is disputed by a virtue lost in abstraction1 and by a humble1 walled-in life1 she will incline to the humble life1 and not to the magnificent virtue that holds itself proudly aloof4 ,it is of the nature of wisdom to despise nothing2 indeed1 in this world there is perhaps only one thing truly contemptible1 and that thing is contempt itself4 ,thinkers too often are apt to despise those who go through life without thinking4 ,thought is doubtless of high value2 our first endeavour should be to think as often and as well as we can2 but1 for all that1 it is somewhat beside the mark to believe that the possession1 or lack1 of a certain faculty for handling general ideas can interpose an actual barrier between men4 ,after all1 the difference between the greatest thinker and the smallest provincial burgher is often only the difference between a truth that can sometimes express itself and a truth that can never crystallise into form4 ,the difference is considerable--a gap1 but not a chasm4 ,the higher our thoughts ascend1 the vainer and the more arbitrary seems the distinction between him who is thinking always and him who thinks not yet4 ,the little burgher is full of prejudice and of passions at which we smile2 his ideas are small and petty1 and sometimes contemptible enough2 and yet1 place him side by side with the sage1 before essential circumstance of life1 before love1 grief1 death1 before something that calls for true heroism1 and it shall happen more than once that the sage will turn to his humble companion as to the guardian of a truth no less profound1 no less deeply human1 than his own4 ,there are moments when the sage realises1 that his spiritual treasures are naught2 that it is only a few words1 or habits1 that divide him from other men2 there are moments when he even doubts the value of those words4 ,those are the moments when wisdom flowers and sends forth blossom4 ,thought may sometimes deceive2 and the thinker who goes astray must often retrace his footsteps to the spot whence those who think not have never moved away1 where they still remain faithfully seated round the silent1 essential truth4 ,they are the guardians of the watch-fires of the tribe2 the others take lighted torches and go wandering abroad2 but when the air grows heavy and threatens the feeble flame1 then is it well to turn back and draw close to the watch-fires once more4 ,these fires seem never to stir from the spot where they always have been2 but in truth they ever are moving1 keeping time with the worlds2 and their flame marks the hour of humanity on the dial of the universe4 ,we know exactly how much the inert forces owe to the thinker2 we forget the deep indebtedness of the thinker to inert force4 ,in a world where all were thinkers1 more than one indispensable truth might perhaps for ever be lost4 ,for indeed the thinker must never lose touch with those who do not think1 as his thoughts would then quickly cease to be just or profound4 ,to disdain is only too easy1 not so to understand2 but in him who is truly wise there passes no thought of disdain1 but it will1 sooner or later1 evolve into full comprehension4 ,the thought that can travel scornfully over the heads of that great silent throng without recognising its myriad brothers and sisters that are slumbering there in its midst1 is only too often merely a sterile1 vicious dream4 ,we do well to remind ourselves at times that the spiritual1 no less than the physical1 atmosphere demands more nitrogen than oxygen for the air to be breathed by man4 #he4 ,it need not surprise us that thinkers like ,balzac should have loved to dwell on these humble lives4 ,eternal sameness runs through them1 and yet does each century mark profoundest change in the atmosphere that enwraps them4 ,the sky above has altered1 but these simple lives have ever the self-same gestures2 and it is these unchanging gestures that tell of the altered sky4 ,a great deed of heroism fascinates us2 our eye cannot travel beyond the act itself2 but insignificant thoughts and deeds lead us on to the horizon beyond them2 and is not the shining star of human wisdom always situate on the horizon8 ,if we could see these things as nature sees them1 with her thoughts and feelings1 we should realise that the uniform mediocrity that runs through these lives cannot truly be mediocre1 from the mere fact of its uniformity4 ,and indeed this matters but little2 we can never judge another soul above the high-water mark of our own2 and however insignificant a creature may seem to us at first1 as our own soul emerges from shadow1 so does the shadow lift from him4 ,there is nothing our eyes behold that is too small to deserve our love2 and there where we cannot love1 we have only to raise our lamp till it reaches the level of love1 and then throw its light around4 ,let only one ray of this light go forth every day from our soul1 we may then be content4 ,it matters not where the light falls4 ,there is not a thing in this world whereupon your glance or your thought can rest but contains within it more treasure than either of these can fathom2 nor is there a thing so small but it has a vastness within that the light that a soul can spare can1 at best1 but faintly illumine4 #hf4 ,is not the very essence of human destiny1 stripped of the details that bewilder us1 to be found in the most ordinary lives8 ,the mighty struggle of morality on the heights is glorious to witness2 but so will a keen observer profoundly admire a magnificent tree that stands alone in a desert1 and1 his contemplation over1 once more go back to the forest1 where there are no marvellous trees1 but trees in countless abundance4 ,the immense forest is doubtless made up of ordinary branches and stems2 but is it not vast1 is it not as it should be1 seeing that it is the forest8 ,not by the exceptional shall the last word ever be spoken2 and indeed what we call the sublime should be only a clearer1 profounder insight into all that is perfectly normal4 ,it is of service1 often1 to watch those on the peaks who do battle2 but it is well1 too1 not to forget those in the valley below1 who fight not at all4 ,as we see all that happens to these whose life knows no struggle2 as we realise how much must be conquered in us before we can rightly distinguish their narrower joys from the joy known to them who are striving on high1 then perhaps does the struggle itself appear to become less important2 but1 for all that1 we love it the more4 ,and the reward is the sweeter to us for the silence that enwraps its coming2 nor is this from a desire to keep our happiness secret--such as a crafty courtier might feel who hugs fortune's favours to him--but1 perhaps1 because it is only when happiness thus whispers low in our ear1 and no other men know1 that it is not according us joys that are filched from our brother's share4 ,then do we no longer say to ourselves1 as we look on those brothers3 ,how great is the distance between such as these and myself1 but in all simplicity do we murmur at last to ourselves3 ,the loftier my thoughts become1 the less is there to divide me from the humblest of my fellow-creatures1 from those who are most plentiful on earth2 and every step that ,i take towards an uncertain ideal1 is a step that brings me the nearer to those whom ,i once despised1 in the vanity and ignorance of my earliest days4 ,after all1 what is a humble life8 ,it is thus we choose to term the life that ignores itself1 that drains itself dry in the place of its birth--a life whose feelings and thoughts1 whose desires and passions1 entwine themselves around the most insignificant things4 ,but it suffices to look at a life for that life to seem great4 ,a life in itself can be neither great nor small2 the largeness is all in the eye that surveys it2 and an existence that all men hold to be lofty and vast1 is one that has long been accustomed to look loftily on itself from within4 ,if you have never done this1 your life must be narrow2 but the man who watches you live will discern1 in the very obscurity of the corner you fill1 an element of horizon1 a foothold to cling to1 whence his thoughts will rise with surer and more human strength4 ,there is not an existence about us but at first seems colourless1 dreary1 lethargic3 what can our soul have in common with that of an elderly spinster1 a slow-witted ploughman1 a miser who worships his gold8 ,can any connection exist between such as these and a deep-rooted feeling1 a boundless love for humanity1 an interest time cannot stale8 ,but let a ,balzac step forward and stand in the midst of them1 with his eyes and ears on the watch2 and the emotion that lived and died in an old-fashioned country parlour shall as mightily stir our heart1 shall as unerringly find its way to the deepest sources of life1 as the majestic passion that ruled the life of a king and shed its triumphant lustre from the dazzling height of a throne4 ,there are certain little agitations1 says ,balzac in the ,cure de ,tours1 the most admirable of all his studies of humble life--there are certain little agitations that are capable of generating as much passion within the soul as would suffice to direct the most important social interests4 ,is it not a mistake to imagine that time only flies swiftly with those whose hearts are devoured by mighty schemes1 which fret and fever their life8 ,not an hour sped past the ,abbe ,troubert but was as animated1 as laden with its burden of anxious thought1 as lined with pleading hope and deep despair1 as could be the most desperate hour of gambler1 plotter1 or lover4 ,god alone can tell how much energy is consumed in the triumphs we achieve over men1 and things1 and ourselves4 ,we may not be always aware whither our steps are leading1 but are only too fully conscious of the wearisomeness of the ,journey4 ,and yet--if the historian may be permitted to lay aside1 for one moment1 the story he is telling1 and to assume the role of the critic--as you cast your eyes on the lives of these old maids and these two priests1 seeking to learn the cause of the sorrow which twisted their heartstrings1 it will be revealed to you1 perhaps1 that certain passions must be experienced by man for there to develop within him the qualities that make a life noble1 that widen its area1 and stifle the egoism natural to all4 ,he speaks truly4 ,not for its own sake1 always1 should we love the light1 but for the sake of what it illumines4 ,the fire on the mountain shines brightly1 but there are few men on the mountain2 and more service may often be rendered by the torchlight1 there where the crowd is4 ,it is in the humble lives that is found the substance of great lives2 and by watching the narrowest feelings does enlargement come to our own4 ,nor is this from any repugnance these feelings inspire1 but because they no longer accord with the majestic truth that controls us4 ,it is well to have visions of a better life than that of every day1 but it is the life of every day from which elements of a better life must come4 ,we are told we should fix our eyes on high1 far above life2 but perhaps it is better still that our soul should look straight before it1 and that the heights whereupon it should yearn to lay all its hopes and its dreams should be the mountain peaks that stand clearly out from the clouds that gild the horizon4 #hg4 ,this brings us back once again to external destiny2 but the tears that external suffering wrings from us are not the only tears known to man4 ,the sage whom we love must dwell in the midst of all human passions1 for only on the passions known to the heart can his wisdom safely be nourished4 ,they are nature's artisans1 sent by her to help us construct the palace of our consciousness--of our happiness1 in other words2 and he who rejects these workers1 deeming that he is able1 unaided1 to raise all the stones of life1 will be compelled for ever to lodge his soul in a bare and gloomy cell4 ,the wise man learns to purify his passions2 to stifle them can never be proof of wisdom4 ,and1 indeed1 these things are all governed by the position we take as we stand on the stairs of time4 ,to some of us moral infirmities are so many stairs tending downwards2 to others they represent steps that lead us on high4 ,the wise man perchance may do things that are done by the unwise man also2 but the latter is forced by his passions to become the abject slave of his instincts1 whereas the sage's passions will end by illumining much that was vague in his consciousness4 ,to love madly1 perhaps1 is not wise2 still1 should he love madly1 more wisdom will doubtless come to him than if he had always loved wisely4 ,it is not wisdom1 but the most useless form of pride that can flourish in vacancy and inertia4 ,it is not enough to know what should be done1 not though we can unerringly declare what saint or hero would do4 ,such things a book can teach in a day4 ,it is not enough to intend to live a noble life and then retire to a cell1 there to brood over this intention4 ,no wisdom thus acquired can truly guide or beautify the soul2 it is of as little avail as the counsels that others can offer4 ,it is in the silence that follows the storm1 says a ,hindu proverb1 and not in the silence before it1 that we should search for the budding flower4 #hh4 ,the earnest wayfarer along the paths of life does but become the more deeply convinced1 as his travels extend1 of the beauty1 the wisdom1 and truth of the simplest and humblest laws of existence4 ,their uniformity1 the mere fact of their being so general1 such matter of every day1 are in themselves enough to compel his admiration4 ,and little by little he holds the abnormal ever less highly1 and neither seeks nor desires it2 for it is soon borne home to him1 as he reflects on the vastness of nature1 with her slow1 monotonous movement1 that the ridiculous pretensions our ignorance and vanity put forth are the most truly abnormal of all4 ,he no longer vexes the hours as they pass with prayer for strange or marvellous adventure2 for these come only to such as have not yet learned to have faith in life and themselves4 ,he no longer awaits1 with folded arms1 the chance for superhuman effort2 for he feels that he exists in every act that is human4 ,he no longer requires that death1 or friendship1 or love should come to him decked out with garlands illusion has woven1 or escorted by omen1 coincidence1 presage2 but they come in their bareness and simpleness1 and are always sure of his welcome4 ,he believes that all that the weak1 and the idle1 and thoughtless consider sublime and exceptional1 that the fall equivalent for the most heroic deed1 can be found in the simple life that is bravely and wholly faced4 ,he no longer considers himself the chosen son of the universe2 but his happiness1 consciousness1 peace of mind1 have gained all that his pride has lost4 ,and1 this point once attained1 then will the miraculous adventures of a ,st4 ,theresa or ,jean-de-la-,croix1 the ecstasy of the mystics1 the supernatural incidents of legendary loves1 the star of an ,alexander or a ,napoleon--then will all these seem the merest childish illusions compared with the healthy wisdom of a loyal1 earnest man1 who has no craving to soar above his fellows so as to feel what they cannot feel1 but whose heart and brain find the light that they need in the unchanging feelings of all4 ,the truest man will never be he who desires to be other than man4 ,how many there are that thus waste their lives1 scouring the heavens for sight of the comet that never will come2 but disdaining to look at the stars1 because these can be seen by all1 and1 moreover1 are countless in number6 ,this craving for the extraordinary is often the special weakness of ordinary men1 who fail to perceive that the more normal1 and ordinary1 and uniform events may appear to us1 the more are we able to appreciate the profound happiness that this uniformity enfolds1 and the nearer are we drawn to the truth and tranquillity of the great force by which we have being4 ,what can be less abnormal than the ocean1 which covers two-thirds of the globe2 and yet1 what is there more vast8 ,there is not a thought or a feeling1 not an act of beauty or nobility1 whereof man is capable1 but can find complete expression in the simplest1 most ordinary life2 and all that cannot be expressed therein must of necessity belong to the falsehoods of vanity1 ignorance1 or sloth4 #hi4 ,does this mean that the wise man should expect no more from life than other men2 that he should love mediocrity and limit his desires2 content himself with little and restrict the horizon of his happiness1 because of the fear lest happiness escape him8 ,by no means2 for the wisdom is halting and sickly that can too freely renounce a legitimate human hope4 ,many desires in man may be legitimate still1 notwithstanding the disapproval of reason1 sometimes unduly severe4 ,but the fact that our happiness does not seem extraordinary to those about us by no means warrants our thinking that we are not happy4 ,the wiser we are1 the more readily do we perceive that happiness lies in our grasp2 that it has no more enviable gift than the uneventful moments it brings4 ,the sage has learnt to quicken and love the silent substance of life4 ,in this silent substance only can faithful joys be found1 for abnormal happiness never ventures to go with us to the tomb4 ,the day that comes and goes without special whisper of hope or happiness should be as dear to us1 and as welcome1 as any one of its brothers4 ,on its way to us it has traversed the same worlds and the self-same space as the day that finds us on a throne or enthralled by a mighty love4 ,the hours are less dazzling1 perhaps1 that its mantle conceals2 but at least we may rely more fully on their humble devotion4 ,there are as many eternal minutes in the week that goes by in silence1 as in the one that tomes boldly towards us with mighty shout and clamour4 ,and indeed it is we who tell ourselves all that the hour would seem to say2 for the hour that abides with us is ever a timid and nervous guest1 that will smile if its host be smiling1 or weep if his eyes be wet4 ,it has been charged with no mission to bring happiness to us2 it is we who should comfort the hour that has sought refuge within our soul4 ,and he is wise who always finds words of peace that he can whisper low to his guest on the threshold4 ,we should let no opportunity for happiness escape us1 and the simplest causes of happiness should be ever stored in our soul4 ,it is well1 at first1 to know happiness as men conceive it1 so that1 later1 we may have good reason for preferring the happiness of our choice4 ,for1 herein1 it is not unlike what we are told of love4 ,to know what real love should be we must have loved profoundly1 and that first love must have fled4 ,it is well to know moments of material happiness1 since they teach us where to look for loftier joys2 and all that we gain1 perhaps1 from listening to the hours that babble aloud in their wantonness is that we are slowly learning the language of the hours whose voice is hushed4 ,and of these there are many2 they come in battalions1 so close on the heels of each other that treachery and flight cannot be2 wherefore it is on them alone that the sage should depend4 ,for he will be happy whose eyes have learned to detect the hidden smile and mysterious jewels of the myriad1 nameless hours2 and where are these jewels to be found1 if not in ourselves8 #ij4 ,but there is a kind of ignoble discretion that has least in common1 of all things1 with the wisdom we speak of here2 for we had far better spend our energy round even fruitless happiness1 than slumber by the fireside awaiting joys that never may come4 ,only the joys that have been offered to all1 and none have accepted1 will knock at his door who refuses himself to stir forth4 ,nor is the other man wise who holds the reins too tight on his feelings1 and halts them when reason commands1 or experience whispers4 ,the friend is not wise who will not confide in his friend1 remembering always that friendships may come to an end2 nor the lover1 who draws back for fear lest he may find shipwreck in love4 ,for here1 were we twenty times unfortunate1 it is still only the perishable portion of our energy for happiness that suffers2 and what is wisdom after all but this same energy for happiness cleansed of all that is impure8 ,to be wise we must first learn to be happy1 that we may attach ever smaller importance to what happiness may be in itself4 ,we should be as happy as possible1 and our happiness should last as long as is possible2 for those who can finally issue forth from self by the portal of happiness1 know infinitely wider freedom than those who pass through the gate of sadness4 ,the joy of the sage illumines his heart and his soul alike1 whereas sadness most often throws light on the heart alone4 ,one might almost compare the man who had never been happy with a traveller whose every journey had been taken by night4 ,moreover1 there is in happiness a humility deeper and nobler1 purer and wider1 than sorrow can ever procure4 ,there is a certain humility that ranks with parasitic virtues1 such as sterile self-sacrifice1 arbitrary chastity1 blind submission1 fanatic renouncement1 penitence1 false shame1 and many others1 which have from time immemorial turned aside from their course the waters of human morality1 and forced them into a stagnant pool1 around which our memory still lingers4 ,nor do ,i speak of a cunning humility that is often mere calculation1 or1 taken at its best1 a timidity that has its root in pride--a loan at usury that our vanity of to-day extends to our vanity of to-morrow4 ,and even the sage at times conceives it well to lower himself in his own self-esteem1 and to deny superior merits that are his when comparing himself with other men4 ,humility of this kind may throw a charm around our ways of life1 but yet1 sincere as it doubtless may be1 it nevertheless attacks the loyalty due to ourselves1 which we should value high above all4 ,and it surely implies a certain timidity of conscience2 whereas the conscience of the sage should harbour neither timidity nor shame4 ,but by the side of this too personal humility there exists another humility that extends to all things1 that is lofty and strong1 that has fed on all that is best in our brain and our heart and our soul4 ,it is a humility that defines the limit of the hopes and adventures of men2 that lessens us only to add to the grandeur of all we behold2 that teaches us where we should look for the true importance of man1 which lies not in that which he is1 but in that which his eyes can take in1 which he strives to accept and to grasp4 ,it is true that sorrow will also bring us to the realm of this humility2 but it hastens us through1 branching off on the road to a mysterious gate of hope1 on whose threshold we lose many days2 whereas happiness1 that after the first few hours has nothing else left to do1 will lead us in silence through path after path till we reach the most unforeseen1 inaccessible places of all4 ,it is when the sage knows he possesses at last all man is allowed to possess1 that he begins to perceive that it is his manner of regarding what man may never possess1 that determines the value of such things as he truly may call his own4 ,and therefore must we long have sunned ourselves in the rays of happiness before we can truly conceive an independent view of life4 ,we must be happy1 not for happiness' sake1 but so that we may learn to see distinctly that which vain expectation of happiness would for ever hide from our gaze4 #ia4 ,economy avails us nothing in the region of the heart1 for it is there that men gather the harvest of life's very substance1 it were better that nothing were done there than that things should be done by halves2 and that which we have not dared to risk is most surely lost of all4 ,to limit our passions is only to limit ourselves1 and we are the losers by just so much as we hoped to gain4 ,there are certain fastnesses within our soul that lie buried so deep that love alone dare venture down2 and it returns laden with undreamed-of jewels1 whose lustre can only be seen as they pass from our open hand to the hand of one we love4 ,and indeed it would seem that so clear a light springs from our hands as they open thus to give1 that it penetrates substance too opaque to yield to the mysterious rays just discovered4 #ib4 ,it avails us nothing unduly to bemoan our errors or losses4 ,for happen what may to the man of simple faith1 still1 at the last minute of the sorrow-laden hour1 at the end of the week or year1 still will he find some cause for gladness as he turns his eyes within4 ,little by little he has learned to regret without tears4 ,he is as a father might be who returns to his home in the evening1 his day's work done4 ,he may find his children in tears perhaps1 or playing dangerous1 forbidden games2 the furniture scattered1 glasses broken1 a lamp overturned2 but shall he therefore despair8 ,it would certainly have been better had the children been more obedient1 had they quietly learned their lessons---this would have been more in keeping with every moral theory2 but how unreasonable the father who1 in the midst of his harsh rebuke1 could withhold a smile as he turned his head away6 ,the children have acted unwisely1 perhaps1 in their exuberance of life2 but why should this distress him8 ,all is well1 so long as he return home at night1 so long as he ever keep about him the key of the guardian dwelling4 ,as we look into ourselves1 and pass in review what our heart1 and brain1 and soul have attempted and carried through while we were away1 the benefit lies far more in the searching glance itself than in the actual inspection4 ,and if the hours have not once let fall their mysterious girdle on their way past our threshold2 if the rooms be as empty as on the day of departure1 and those within have but sat with folded arms and worked not at all---still1 as we enter1 shall something be learned from our echoing footsteps1 of the extent1 and the clearness1 and the fidelity1 of our home4 #ic4 ,no day can be uneventful1 save in ourselves alone2 but in the day that seems most uneventful of all1 there is still room for the loftiest destiny2 for there is far more scope for such destiny within ourselves than on the whole continent of ,europe4 ,not by the extent of empire is the range of destiny governed1 but1 indeed1 by the depth of our soul4 ,it is in our conception of life that real destiny is found2 when at last there is delicate balance between the insoluble questions of heaven and the wavering response of our soul4 ,and these questions become the more tranquil as they seem to comprise more and more2 and to the sage1 whatever may happen will still widen the scope of the questions1 still give deeper confidence to the reply4 ,speak not of destiny when the event that has brought you joy or sadness has still altered nothing in your manner of regarding the universe4 ,all that remains to us when love and glory are over1 when adventures and passions have faded into the past1 is but a deeper and ever-deepening sense of the infinite2 and if we have not that within us1 then are we destitute indeed4 ,and this sense of the infinite is more than a mere assemblage of thoughts1 which1 indeed1 are but the innumerable steps that thither lead4 ,there is no happiness in happiness itself1 unless it help our comprehension of the rest1 unless it help us in some measure to conceive that the very universe itself must rejoice in existence4 ,the sage who has attained a certain height will find peace in all things that happen2 and the event that saddens him1 as other men1 tarries but an instant ere it goes to strengthen his deep perception of life4 ,he who has learned to see in all things only matter for unselfish wonder1 can be deprived of no satisfaction whatever without there spring to sudden life within him1 from the mere feeling that this joy can be dispensed with1 a high protecting thought that enfolds him in its light4 ,that destiny is beautiful wherein each event1 though charged with joy or sadness1 has brought reflection to us1 has added something to our range of soul1 has given us greater peace wherewith to cling to life4 ,and1 indeed1 the accident that robs us of our love1 that leads us along in triumph1 or even that seats us on a throne1 reveals but little of the workings of destiny2 which1 indeed1 lie far more in the thoughts that arise in our mind as we look at the men around us1 at the woman we love2 as we dwell on the feelings within us2 as we fix our eyes on the evening sky with its crown of indifferent stars4 #id4 ,a woman of extraordinary beauty and talent1 possessed of the rarest qualities of mind and soul1 was one day asked by a friend1 to whom she seemed the most perfect creature on earth3 ,what are your plans8 ,can any man be worthy of your love8 ,your future puzzles me4 ,i cannot conceive a destiny that shall be lofty enough for a soul such as yours4 ,he knew but little of destiny4 ,to him1 as to most men1 it meant thrones1 triumphs1 dazzling adventures3 these things seemed to him the sum of a human destiny2 whereby he did but prove that he knew not what destiny was4 ,and1 in the first place1 why this disdain of to-day8 ,to disdain to-day is to prove that yesterday has been misunderstood4 ,to disdain to-day is to declare oneself a stranger1 and what can you hope to do in a world where you shall ever pass as a stranger8 ,to-day has this advantage over yesterday1 that it exists and was made for us4 ,be to-day what it will1 it has wider knowledge than yesterday2 and by that alone does it become more beautiful1 and vaster4 ,why should we think that the woman ,i speak of would have known a more brilliant destiny in ,venice1 ,florence1 or ,rome8 ,her presence might have been sought at magnificent festival1 and her beauty have found a fitting surrounding in exquisite landscape4 ,she might have had princes and kings1 the elect of the world1 at her feet2 and perhaps it had needed but one of her smiles to add to a great nation's gladness1 to ennoble or chasten the thought of an epoch4 ,whereas here all her life will be spent among four or five people--four or five souls that know of her soul1 and love her4 ,it may be that she never shall stir from her dwelling2 that of her life1 of her thoughts1 and the strength that is in her1 there will remain not a trace among men4 ,it may be that her beauty1 her force and her instinct for good1 will be buried within her3 in her heart and the hearts of the few who are near4 ,and even then1 and if this be so1 the soul of this woman doubtless shall find its own thing to do4 ,the mighty gates through which we must pass to a helpful and noteworthy life no longer grate on their hinges with the deafening clamour of old4 ,they are smaller1 perhaps1 than they were2 less vast and imposing2 but their number is greater to-day1 and they admit us1 in silence1 to paths that extend very far4 ,and even though the home of this woman be not brightened by one single gleam from without1 will she have failed to fulfil her destiny because her life is lived in the shade8 ,cannot destiny be beautiful and complete in itself1 without help from without8 ,as the soul that has truly conquered surveys the triumphs of the past1 it is glad of those only that brought with them a deeper knowledge of life and a nobler humility2 of those that lent sweeter charm to the moments when love1 glory1 and enthusiasm having faded away1 the fruit that a few hours of boiling passion had ripened was gathered in meditation and silence4 ,when the feasting is over3 when charity1 kindness and valorous deed all lie far behind us3 what is there left to the soul but some stray recollections1 a gain of some consciousness1 and a feeling that helps us to look on our place in the world with more knowledge and less apprehension--a feeling blent with some wisdom1 from the numberless things it has learned8 ,when the hour for rest has sounded--as it must sound every night and at every moment of solitude--when the gaudy vestments of love1 and glory1 and power fall helplessly round us2 what is it we can take with us as we seek refuge within ourselves1 where the happiness of each day is measured by the knowledge the day has brought us1 by the thoughts and the confidence it has helped us to acquire8 ,is our true destiny to be found in the things which take place about us1 or in that which abides in our soul8 ,be a man's power or glory never so great1 said a philosopher1 his soul soon learns how to value the feelings that spring from external events2 and as he perceives that no increase has come to his physical faculties1 that these remain wholly unchanged1 neither altered nor added to1 then does the sense of his nothingness burst full upon him4 ,the king who should govern the world must still1 like the rest of his brothers1 revolve in a limited circle1 whose every law must be obeyed2 and on his impressions and thoughts must his happiness wholly depend4 ,the impressions his memory retains1 we might add1 because they have chastened his mind2 for the souls that we deal with here will retain such impressions only as have quickened their sense of goodness1 as have made them a little more noble4 ,is it impossible to find--it matters not where1 nor how great be the silence--the same undlssolvable matter that lurks in the cup of the noblest external existence8 and seeing that nothing is truly our own till it faithfully follow us into the darkness and silence1 why should the thing that has sprung to life there be less faithful in silence and darkness8 ,but we will pursue this no farther1 for it leads to a wisdom of over-much theory4 ,for all that a brilliant exterior destiny is not indispensable1 still should we always regard it as wholly desirable1 and pursue it as keenly as though we valued it highly4 ,it behoves the sage to knock at the door of every temple of glory1 of every dwelling where happiness1 love1 and activity are to be found4 ,and if his strenuous effort and long expectation remain unrewarded1 if no door fly open1 still may he find1 perhaps1 in the mere expectation and effort an equivalent for all the emotions and light that he sought4 ,to act1 says ,barres1 is to annex to our thoughts vaster fields of experience4 ,it is also1 perhaps1 to think more quickly than thought1 as more completely2 for we no longer think with the brain alone1 but with every atom of life4 ,it is to wrap round with dream the profoundest sources of thought1 and then to confront them with fact4 ,but to act is not always to conquer4 ,to attempt1 to be patient1 and wait--these1 too1 may be action2 as also1 to hear1 to watch1 and be silent4 ,if the lot of the woman we speak of had been cast in ,athens1 or ,florence1 or ,rome1 there had been1 in her life1 certain motives of grandeur1 occasions for beauty and happiness1 that she may well never meet with to-day4 ,and she is the poorer for lacking the efforts she might have put forth1 the memory of what might have been done2 for in these lies a force that is precious and vital1 that often indeed will transform many more things within us1 than a thought which is morally1 mentally worth many thousand such efforts and memories4 ,and indeed it is therefore alone that we should desire a brilliant1 feverish destiny2 because it summons to life certain forces and feelings that would otherwise never emerge from the slumberous peace of an over-tranquil existence4 ,but from the moment we know1 or even suspect1 that these feelings lie dormant within us1 we are already giving life to all that is best in those feelings2 and it is as though we were1 for one brief moment1 looking down upon a glorious external destiny from heights such destiny shall only attain at the end of its days2 as though we were prematurely gathering the fruit of the tree1 which it shall itself still find barren until many a storm has passed4 #ie4 ,last night1 re-reading ,saint-,simon--with whom we seem to ascend a lofty tower1 whence our gaze rests on hundreds of human destinies1 astir in the valley below--,i understood what a beautiful destiny meant to the instinct of man4 ,it would doubtless have puzzled ,saint-,simon himself to have told what it was that he loved and admired in some of his heroes1 whom he enwraps in a sort of resigned1 and almost unconscious1 respect4 ,thousands of virtues that he esteemed highly have ceased to exist to-day1 and many a quality now seems petty indeed that he commended in some of his great ones4 ,and yet are there1 unperceived as it were by him1 four or five men in the midst of the glittering crowd hard by the monarch's throne1 four or five earnest benevolent faces on whom our eye still rests gladly2 though ,saint-,simon gives them no special attention or thought1 for in his heart he looks with disfavour on the ideas that govern their life4 ,fenelon is there2 the ,dukes of ,chevreuse and ,beauvilliers2 there is ,monsieur le ,dauphin4 ,their happiness is no greater than that of the rest of mankind4 ,they achieve no marked success1 they gain no resplendent victory1 ,they live as the others live--in the fret and expectation of the thing that we choose to call happiness1 because it has yet to come4 ,fenelon incurs the displeasure of the crafty1 bigoted king1 who1 for all his pride1 would resent the most trivial offence with the humbleness of humblest vanity2 who was great in small things1 and petty in all that was great--for such was ,louis ,,xiv4 ,fenelon is condemned1 persecuted1 exiled4 ,the ,dukes of ,chevreuse and ,beauvilliers continue to hold important office at ,court1 but none the less deem it prudent to live in a kind of voluntary retirement4 ,the ,dauphin is not in favour with the ,king2 a powerful1 envious clique are for ever intriguing against him1 and they finally succeed in crushing his youthful military glory4 ,he lives in the midst of disgrace1 misadventure1 disaster1 that seem irreparable in the eyes of that vain and servile ,court2 for disgrace and disaster assume the proportions the manners of the day accord4 ,finally he dies1 a few days after the death of the wife he had loved so tenderly4 ,he dies--poisoned1 perhaps1 as she too2 the thunderbolt falling just as the very first rays of kingly favour1 whereon he had almost ceased to count1 were stealing over his threshold4 ,such were the troubles and misfortunes1 the sorrows and disappointments1 that wrapped these lives round2 and yet1 as we look on this little group1 standing firm and silent in the midst of the feverish1 intermittent glitter of the rest1 then do these four destinies seem truly beautiful to us1 and enviable4 ,through all their vicissitudes one common light shines through them4 ,the great soul of ,fenelon illumines them all4 ,fenelon is faithful to his loftiest thoughts of piety1 meekness1 wonder1 justice1 and love2 and the other three are faithful to him1 who was their master and friend4 ,and what though the mystic ideas of ,fenelon be no longer shared by us3 what though the ideas that we cling to ourselves1 and deem the profoundest and noblest--the ideas that live at the root of our every conviction of life1 that have served as the basis of all our moral happiness--what though these should one day fall in ruins behind us1 and only arouse a smile among such as believe that they have found other thoughts still1 which to them seem more human1 and final8 ,thought1 of itself1 is possessed of no vital importance2 it is the feelings awakened within us by thought that ennoble and brighten our life4 ,thought is our aim1 perhaps2 but it may be with this as with many a journey we take--the place we are bound for may interest us less than the journey itself1 the people we meet on the road1 the unforeseen that may happen4 ,here1 as everywhere1 it is only the sincerity of human feeling that abides4 ,as for a thought1 we know not1 it may be deceptive2 but the love1 wherewith we have loved it1 will surely return to our soul2 nor can a single drop of its clearness or strength be abstracted by error4 ,of that perfect ideal that each of us strives to build up in himself1 the sum total of all our thoughts will help only to model the outline2 but the elements that go to construct it1 and keep it alive1 are the purified passion1 unselfishness1 loyalty1 wherein these thoughts have had being4 ,the extent of our love for the thing which we hold to be true is of greater importance than even the truth itself4 ,does not love bring more goodness to us than thought can ever convey8 ,loyally to love a great error may well be more helpful than meanly to serve a great truth2 for in doubt1 no less than in faith1 are passion and love to be found4 ,some doubts are as generous and passionate as the very noblest convictions4 ,be a thought of the loftiest1 surest1 or of the most profoundly uncertain1 the best that it has to offer is still the chance that it gives us of loving some one thing wholly1 without reserve4 ,whether it be to man1 or a ,god2 to country1 to world or to error1 that ,i truly do yield myself up1 the precious ore that shall some day be found buried deep in the ashes of love will have sprung from the love itself1 and not from the thing that ,i loved4 ,the sincerity of an attachment1 its simplicity1 firmness1 and zeal--these leave a track behind them that time can never efface4 ,all passes away and changes2 it may be that all is lost1 save only the glow of this ardour1 fertility1 and strength of our heart4 #if4 ,never did man possess his soul in such peace as he1 says ,saint-,simon of one of them1 who was surrounded on all sides by malice1 and scheming1 and snares4 ,and further on he speaks of the wise tranquillity of another1 and this wise tranquillity pervades every one of those whom he terms the little flock4 ,the little flock1 truly1 of fidelity to all that was noblest in thought2 the little flock of friendship1 loyalty1 self-respect1 and inner contentment1 that pass along1 radiant with peace and simplicity1 in the midst of the lies and ambitions1 the follies and treacheries1 of ,versailles4 ,they are not saints1 in the vulgar sense of the word4 ,they have not fled to the depths of forest or desert1 or sought egotistic shelter in narrow cells4 ,they are sages1 who remain within life and the things that are real4 ,it is not their piety that saves them2 it is not in ,god alone that their soul has found strength4 ,to love ,god1 and to serve ,him with all one's might1 will not suffice to bring peace and strength to the soul of man4 ,it is only by means of the knowledge and thought we have gained and developed by contact with men that we can learn how ,god should be loved2 for1 notwithstanding all things1 the human soul remains profoundly human still4 ,it may be taught to cherish the invisible1 but it will ever find far more actual nourishment in the virtue or feeling that is simply and wholly human1 than in the virtue or passion divine4 ,if there come towards us a man whose soul is truly tranquil and calm1 we may be certain that human virtues have given him his tranquillity and his calmness4 ,were we permitted to peer into the secret recesses of hearts that are now no more1 we might discover1 perhaps1 that the fountain of peace whereat ,fenelon slaked his thirst every night of his exile lay rather in his loyalty to ,madame ,guyon in her misfortune1 in his love for the slandered1 persecuted ,dauphin1 than in his expectation of eternal reward2 rather in the irreproachable human conscience within him1 overflowing with fidelity and tenderness1 than in the hopes he cherished as a ,christian4 #ig4 ,admirable indeed is the serenity of this little flock6 ,no virtue1 here1 to kindle dazzling fires on the mountain1 but heart and soul that are alive with flame4 ,no heroism but that of love1 of confidence and sincerity1 that remember and are content to wait4 ,some men there are whose virtue issues from them with a noise of clanging gates2 in others it dwells as silent as the maid who never stirs from home1 who sits thoughtfully by the fireside1 always ready to welcome those who enter from the cold without4 ,there is less need of heroic hours1 perhaps1 in a beautiful life1 than of weeks that are grave1 and uniform1 and pure4 ,it may be that the soul that is loyal and perfectly just is more precious than the one that is tender or full of devotion ,it will enter less wholly perhaps1 and with less exaltation1 into the more exuberant adventures of life2 but in the events that occur every day we can trust it more fully1 rely more completely upon it2 and is there a man1 after all1 no matter how strange and delirious and brilliant his life may have been1 who has not spent the great bulk of his time in the midst of most ordinary incident8 ,in our very sublimest hour1 as we stand in the midst of the dazzling circles it throws1 are we not startled to find that the habits and thoughts of our soberest hour are whirling around with the rest8 ,we must always come back to our normal life1 that is built on the solid earth and primitive rock4 ,we are not called upon to contest each day with dishonour1 despair1 or death2 but it is imperative1 perhaps1 that ,i should be able to tell myself1 at every hour of sadness1 that there exists1 somewhere1 an unchangeable1 unconquerable soul that has drawn near to my soul--a soul that is faithful and silent1 blind to all that it deems not conformable with the truth4 ,we can only have praise for heroism1 and for surpassingly generous deeds2 but more praise still--as it demands a more vigilant strength--for the man who never allows an inferior thought to seduce him2 who leads a less glorious life1 perhaps1 but one of more uniform worth4 ,let us sometimes1 in our meditations1 bring our desire for moral perfection to the level of daily truth1 and be taught how far easier it is to confer occasional benefit than never to do any harm2 to bring occasional happiness than never be cause of tears4 #ih4 ,their refuge1 their firm rock1 as ,saint-,simon calls it1 lay in each other1 and1 above all1 in themselves2 and all that was blameless within their soul became steadfastness in the rock4 ,a thousand substances go to form the foundations of this firm rock1 but all that we hold to be blameless within us will sink to its centre and base4 ,it is true that our standard of conduct may often be sadly at fault2 and the vilest of men has a moment each night when he proudly surveys some detestable thought1 that seems wholly blameless to him4 ,but ,i speak of a virtue1 here1 that is higher than everyday virtue2 and the most ordinary man is aware what a virtue becomes1 when it is ordinary virtue no longer4 ,moral beauty1 indeed1 though it be of the rarest kind1 never passes the comprehension of the most narrow-minded of men2 and no act is so readily understood as the act that is truly sublime4 ,we may admire a deed profoundly1 perhaps1 and yet not rise to its height2 but it is imperative that we should not abide in the darkness that covers the thing we blame4 ,many a happiness in life1 as many a disaster1 is due to chance alone2 but the peace within us can never be governed by chance4 ,some souls1 ,i know1 for ever are building2 others have preference for ruins2 and others1 still1 will wander1 their whole life through1 seeking shelter beneath strange roofs4 ,and difficult as it may be to transform the instincts that dwell in the soul1 it is well that those who build not should be made aware of the joy that the others experience as they incessantly pile stone upon stone4 ,their thoughts1 and attachments1 and love2 their convictions1 deceptions1 and even their doubts--all stand in good service2 and when the passing storm has demolished their mansion1 they build once again with the ruins1 a little distance away1 something less stately perhaps1 but better adapted to all the requirements of life4 ,what regret1 disillusion1 or sadness can shatter the homestead of him who1 in choosing the stones for his dwelling1 ,was careful to keep all the wisdom and strength that regret1 disillusion1 and sadness contain8 ,or might we not say that it is with the roots of the happiness we cherish within as with roots of great trees8 ,the oaks that are subject the most to the stress of the storm thrust their roots the most staunchly and firmly1 deep down in eternal soil2 and the fate that unjustly pursues us is no more aware of what comes to pass in our soul1 than the wind is aware of what happens below in the earth4 #ii4 ,here let us note how great is the power1 how mysterious the attraction1 of veritable happiness4 ,something of a hush comes over ,saint-,simon's stirring narrative as one of the members of the little flock passes through the careless1 triumphant crowd1 unceasingly busy with intrigue and salutation1 petty love and petty triumph1 amidst the marble staircases and magnificent halls of ,versailles4 ,saint-,simon goes calmly on with his story2 but for one second we seem to have compared all this jubilant vanity and ephemeral rejoicing1 this brazen-tongued falsehood that secretly trembles1 with the serene1 unvarying loftiness of those strenuous1 tranquil souls4 ,it is as though there should suddenly appear in the midst of a band of children--who are plucking flowers1 it may be1 stealing fruit1 or playing forbidden games--a priest or an aged man1 who should go on his way1 letting fall not one word of rebuke4 ,the games are suddenly stopped2 startled conscience awakens2 and unbidden thoughts of duty1 reality1 truth1 rush in on the mind2 but with men no more than with children are impressions of long duration1 though they spring from the priest1 or the sage1 or only the thought that has passed and gone on its way4 ,but it matters not1 they have seen2 and the human soul1 for all that the eyes are only too willing to close or turn away1 is nobler than most men would wish it to be1 for it often troubles their peace2 and the soul is quick to declare its preference for that it has seen1 and fain would abandon its enforced and wearisome idleness4 ,and although we may smile and make merry as the sage disappears in the distance1 he has1 though he know it not1 left a clear track in the midst of our error and folly1 where1 haply1 it still will abide for a long time to come4 ,and when the sudden hour of tears bursts upon us1 then most of all shall we see it enwrapped in light4 ,we find again and again1 in ,saint-,simon's story1 that sorrow no sooner invades a soul somewhat loftier than others1 somewhat nearer to life perhaps1 than it speedily flies for comfort to one it has thus seen pass by in the midst of the uneasy silence and almost malevolent wonder1 that in this world too often attend the footsteps of a blameless life4 ,it is not our wont to question happiness closely in the days when we deem ourselves happy2 but when sorrow draws nigh1 our memory flies to the peace that somewhere lies hidden3 the peace that depends not on the rays of the sun1 or the kiss that has been withheld1 or the disapproval of kings4 ,at such moments we go not to those who are happy1 as we once were happy2 for we know that this happiness melts away before the first fretful gesture of fate4 ,would you learn where true happiness dwells1 you have only to watch the movements of those who are wretched1 and seek consolation4 ,sorrow is like the divining-rod that used to avail the seekers of treasure or of clear running water2 for he who may have it about him unerringly makes for the house where profoundest peace has its home4 ,and this is so true that we should be wise1 perhaps1 not to dwell with too much satisfaction on our own peace of mind and tranquillity1 on the sincerity of our own acquiescence in the great laws of life1 or rely too complacently on the duration of our own happiness1 until such time as the instinct of those who suffer impels them to knock at our door1 and their eyes can behold1 shining bright on the threshold1 the steady1 unwavering flame of the lamp that burns on for ever4 ,yes2 only they1 it may be1 have the right to deem themselves safe to whose arms there come to weep those whose eyes are heavy with tears4 ,and indeed there are not a few in this world whose inner smile we can only behold when our eyes have been cleansed by the tears that lay bare the mysterious sources of vision2 and then only do we begin to detect the presence of happiness that springs not from the favour or gleam of an hour1 but from widest acceptance of life4 ,here1 as in much beside1 desire and necessity quicken our senses4 ,the hungry bee will discover the honey1 be it hid never so deep in the cavern2 and the soul that mourns will spy out the joy that lies hidden in its retreat1 or in most impenetrable silence4 #ajj4 ,destiny begins when consciousness wakes1 and bestirs itself within man2 not the passive1 impoverished consciousness of most souls1 but the active consciousness that will accept the event1 whatever it may be1 as an imprisoned queen will accept a gift that is offered to her in her cell4 ,if nothing should happen1 your consciousness yet may create important event from the manner in which it regards the mere dearth of event2 but perhaps to each man there occurs vastly more than is needed to satisfy the thirstiest1 most indefatigable consciousness4 ,i have at this moment before me the history of a mighty and passionate soul1 whom every adventure that makes for the sorrow or gladness of man would seem to have passed by with averted head4 ,it is of ,emily ,bronte ,i speak1 than whom the first fifty years of this century produced no woman of greater or more incontestable genius4 ,she has left but one book behind her1 a novel1 called ,wuthering ,heights1 a curious title1 which seems to suggest a storm on a mountain peak4 ,she was the daughter of an ,english clergyman1 the ,rev4 ,patrick ,bronte1 who was the most insignificant1 selfish1 lethargic1 pretentious creature the mind can conceive4 ,there were only two things in life that seemed of importance to him--the purity of his ,greek profile1 and solicitude for his digestion4 ,as for ,emily's unfortunate mother1 her whole life would seem to have been spent in admiring this ,greek profile and in studying this digestion4 ,but there is scarcely need to dwell upon her existence1 for she died only two years after ,emily's birth4 ,it is of interest to note1 however--if only to prove once again that1 in ordinary life1 the woman is usually superior to the man she has had to accept--that long after the death of the patient wife a bundle of letters was found1 wherein it was clearly revealed that she who had always been silent was fully alive to the indifference and fatuous self-love of her vain and indolent husband4 ,we may1 it is true1 be conscious of faults in others from which we are ourselves not exempt2 although to discover a virtue1 perhaps1 we must needs have a germ of it in us4 ,such were ,emily's parents4 ,around her1 four sisters and one brother gravely watched the monotonous flight of the hours4 ,the family dwelling1 where ,emily's whole life was spent1 was in the heart of the ,yorkshire ,moors1 at a place called ,haworth1 a gloomy1 desolate village2 barren1 forsaken1 and lonely4 ,there can never have been a childhood and youth so friendless1 monotonous1 and dreary as that of ,emily and her sisters4 ,there came to them none of those happy little adventures1 bright gleams from the unexpected1 which we broider and magnify as the years go by1 and store at last in our soul as the one inexhaustible treasure acquired by the smiling memory of life4 ,each day was the same1 from first to last--lessons1 meals1 household duties1 work beside an old aunt1 and long solitary walks that these grave little girls would take hand in hand1 speaking but seldom1 across the heather now gay with blossom1 now white beneath the snow4 ,at home the father they scarcely saw1 who was wholly indifferent1 who took his meals in his room1 and would come down at night to the rectory parlour and read aloud the appallingly dreary debates of the ,house of ,commons3 without1 the silence of the adjoining graveyard1 the great treeless desert1 and the moors that from autumn to summer were swept by the pitiless wind from the north4 ,the hazard of life--for in every life some effort is put forth by fate--the hazard of life removed ,emily three or four times from the desert she had grown to love1 and to consider--as will happen to those who remain too long in one spot--the only place in the world where the plants1 and the earth1 and the sky were truly real and delightful4 ,but after a few weeks' absence the light would fade from her ardent1 beautiful eyes2 she pined for home2 and one or another of the sisters must hasten to bring her back to the lonely vicarage4 ,in #ahdc--she was then twenty-five--she returned once again1 never more to go forth until summoned by death4 ,not an event1 or a smile1 or a whisper of love in the whole of her life to the day of this final return4 ,nor was her memory charged with one of those griefs or deceptions1 which enable the weaklings1 or those who demand too little of life1 to imagine that passive fidelity to something that has of itself collapsed is an act of virtue2 that inactivity is justified by the tears wherein it is bathed2 and that the duty of life is accomplished when suffering has been made to yield up all its resignation and sorrow4 ,here1 in this virgin soul1 whose past was a blank1 there was nothing for memory or resignation to cling to2 nothing before that last journey1 as nothing after2 unless it be mournful vigils by the side of the brother she nursed--the almost demented brother1 whose life was wrecked by his idleness and a great unfortunate passion2 who became an incurable opium-eater and drunkard4 ,then1 shortly before her twenty-ninth birthday1 on a ,december afternoon1 as she sat in the little whitewashed parlour combing her long black hair1 the comb slipped from the fingers that were too weak to retain it1 and fell into the fire2 and death came to her1 more silent even than life1 and bore her away from the pale embraces of the two sisters whom fortune had left her4 #aja4 ,no touch of love1 no hint of fame1 no hours of ease lie for you across the knees of fate1 exclaims ,miss ,mary ,robinson1 who has chronicled this existence1 in a fine outburst of sorrow4 ,and truly1 viewed from without1 what life could be more dreary and colourless1 more futile and icily cold1 than that of ,emily ,bronte8 ,but where shall we take our stand1 when we pass such a life in review1 so as best to discover its truth1 to judge it1 approve it1 and love it8 ,how different it all appears as we leave the little parsonage1 hidden away on the moors1 and let our eyes rest on the soul of our heroine6 ,it is rare indeed that we thus can follow the life of a soul in a body that knew no adventure2 but it is less rare than might be imagined that a soul should have life of its own1 which hardly depends1 if at all1 on incident of week or of year4 ,in ,wuthering ,heights--wherein this soul gives to the world its passions1 desires1 reflections1 realisations1 ideals1 which is1 in a word1 its real history--in ,wuthering ,heights there is more adventure1 more passion1 more energy1 more ardour1 more love1 than is needed to give life or fulfilment to twenty heroic existences1 twenty destinies of gladness or sorrow4 ,not a single event ever paused as it passed by her threshold2 yet did every event she could claim take place in her heart1 with incomparable force and beauty1 with matchless precision and detail4 ,we say that nothing ever happened2 but did not all things really happen to her much more directly and tangibly than unto most of us1 seeing that everything that took place about her1 everything that she saw or heard1 was transformed within her into thoughts and feelings1 into indulgent love1 admiration1 adoration of life8 ,what matter whether the event fall on our neighbour's roof or our own8 ,the rain-drops the cloud brings with it are for him who will hold out his vessel2 and the gladness1 the beauty1 the peace1 or the helpful disquiet that is found in the gesture of fate1 belongs only to him who has learned to reflect4 ,love never came to her3 there fell never once on her ear the lover's magical footfall2 and1 for all that1 this virgin1 who died in her twenty-ninth year1 has known love1 has spoken of love1 has penetrated its most impenetrable secrets to such a degree1 that those who have loved the most deeply must sometimes uneasily wonder what name they should give to the passion they feel1 when she pours forth the words1 exaltation and mystery of a love beside which all else seems pallid and casual4 ,where1 if not in her heart1 has she heard the matchless words of the girl1 who speaks to her nurse of the man who is hated and harassed by all1 but whom she wholly adores8 ,my great miseries in this world have been ,heathcliff's miseries1 and ,i watched and felt each from the beginning2 my great thought in living is himself4 ,if all else perished1 and ,,he remained1 ,i should still continue to be2 and if all else remained1 and he were annihilated1 the universe would turn to a mighty stranger2 ,i should not seem a part of it4 ,my love for ,linton is like the foliage in the woods3 time will change it1 ,i'm well aware1 as winter changes the trees4 ,my love for ,heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath--a source of little visible delight1 but necessary4 ,nelly1 ,i ,,am ,heathcliff6 ,he's always1 always in my mind3 not as a pleasure1 any more than ,i am always a pleasure to myself1 but as my own being4 444 ,i do not love him because he's handsome1 but because he's more myself than ,i am4 ,whatever our souls are made of1 his and mine are the same4 444 ,she has but little acquaintance with the external realities of love1 and these she handles so innocently at times as almost to provoke a smile2 but where can she have acquired her knowledge of those inner realities1 that are interwoven with all that is profoundest and most illogical in passion1 with all that is most unexpected1 most impossible1 and most eternally true8 ,we feel that one must have lived for thirty years beneath burning chains of burning kisses to learn what she has learned2 to dare so confidently set forth1 with such minuteness1 such unerring certainty1 the delirium of those two predestined lovers of ,wuthering ,heights2 to mark the self-conflicting movements of the tenderness that would make suffer and the cruelty that would make glad1 the felicity that prayed for death and the despair that clung to life2 the repulsion that desired1 the desire drunk with repulsion--love surcharged with hatred1 hatred staggering beneath its load of love4 444 ,and yet it is known to us--for in this poor life of hers all lies open--that she neither loved nor was loved4 ,may it be true then that the last word of an existence is only a word that destiny whispers low to what lies most hidden in our heart8 ,have we indeed an inner life that yields not in reality to the outer life2 that is no less susceptible of experience and impression8 ,can we live1 it matters not where1 and love1 and hate1 listening for no footfall1 spurning no creature8 ,is the soul self-sufficient2 and is it always the soul that decides1 a certain height once gained8 ,is it only to those whose conscience still slumbers that events can seem sad or sterile8 ,did not love and beauty1 happiness and adventure--did not all that we go in search of along the ways of life congregate in ,emily ,bronte's heart8 ,day after day passed by1 with never a joy or emotion2 never a smile that the eye could see or the hand could touch2 wherefore none the less did her destiny find its fulfilment1 for the confidence within her1 the eagerness1 hope1 animation1 all were astir2 and her heart was flooded with light1 and radiant with silent gladness4 ,of her happiness none can doubt4 ,not in the soul of the best of all those whose happiness has lasted the longest1 been the most active1 diversified1 perfect1 could more imperishable harvest be found than in the soul ,emily ,bronte lays bare4 ,if to her there came nothing of all that passes in joy and in love1 in sorrow1 passion1 and anguish1 still did she possess all that abides when emotion has faded away4 ,which of the two will know more of the marvellous palace--the blind man who lives there1 or the other1 with wide-open eyes1 who perhaps only enters it once8 ,to live1 not to live--we must not let mere words mislead us4 ,it is surely possible to live without thought1 but not to think1 without active life4 ,the essence of the joy or sorrow the event contains lies in the idea the event gives birth to3 our own idea1 if we are strong2 that of others1 if we are weak4 ,on your way to the grave there may come a thousand external events towards you1 whereof not one1 it may be1 shall find within you the force that it needs to turn to moral event4 ,then may you truthfully say1 and then only1 ,i have perhaps not lived4 ,the intimate happiness of our heroine1 as of every human being1 was in exact proportion to her morality and her sense of the universe2 and these indeed are the clearings in the forest of accidents whose area it is well we should know when we seek to measure the happiness a life has experienced4 ,who that had gained the altitude of peace and comprehension whereon her soul reposed would still be wrought to feeble1 bitter1 unrefreshing tears by the cares and troubles and deceptions of ordinary life8 ,who would not then understand why it was that she shed no tears1 unlike so many of her sisters1 who spend their lives in plaintive wanderings from one broken joy to another8 ,the joy that is dead weighs heavy1 and bids fair to crush us1 if we cause it to be with us for ever2 which is as though a wood-cutter should refuse to lay down his load of dead wood4 ,for dead wood was not made to be eternally borne on the shoulder1 but indeed to be burned1 and give forth brilliant flame4 ,and as we behold the names that soar aloft in ,emily's soul1 then are we as heedless as she was of the sorrows of the dead wood4 ,no misfortune but has its horizon1 no sadness but shall know comfort1 for the man who in the midst of his suffering1 in the midst of the grief that must come to him as to all1 has learned to espy ,nature's ample gesture beneath all sorrow and suffering1 and has become aware that this gesture alone is real4 ,the sage1 who is lord of his life1 can never truly be said to suffer4 wrote an admirable woman1 who had known much sorrow herself4 ,it is from the heights above that he looks down on his life1 and if to-day he should seem to suffer1 it is only because he has allowed his thoughts to incline towards the less perfect part of his soul4 ,emily ,bronte not only breathes life into tenderness1 loyalty1 and love1 but into hatred and wickedness also2 nay1 into the very fiercest revengeful ness1 the most deliberate perfidy2 nor does she deem it incumbent upon her to pardon1 for pardon implies only incomplete comprehension4 ,she sees1 she admits1 and she loves4 ,she admits the evil as well as the good1 she gives life to both2 well knowing that evil1 when all is said1 is only righteousness strayed from the path4 ,she reveals to us--not with the moralist's arbitrary formula1 but as men and years reveal the truths we have wit to grasp--the final helplessness of evil1 brought face to face with life2 the final appeasement of all things in nature as well as in death1 which is only the triumph of life over one of its specialised forms4 ,she shows how the dexterous lie1 begotten of genius and strength1 is forced to bow down before the most ignorant1 puniest truth2 she shows the self-deception of hatred that sows1 all unwilling1 the seeds of gladness and love in the life that it anxiously schemes to destroy4 ,she is1 perhaps1 the first to base a plea for indulgence on the great law of heredity2 and when1 at the end of her book1 she goes to the village churchyard and visits the eternal resting-place of her heroes1 the grass grows green alike over grave of tyrant and martyr2 and she wonders how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth4 #ajb4 ,i am well aware that here we are dealing with a woman of genius2 but genius only throws into bolder relief all that can1 and actually does1 take place in the lives of all men2 otherwise were it genius no longer1 but incoherence or madness4 ,it becomes clear to us1 after a time1 that genius is by no means confined to the extraordinary2 and that veritable superiority is composed of elements that every day offers to every man4 ,but we are not considering literature now2 and indeed1 not by her literary gifts1 but by her inner life1 was ,emily ,bronte comforted2 for it by no means follows that moral activity waits on brilliant literary powers4 ,had she remained silent1 nor ever grasped a pen1 still had there been no diminution of the power within her1 of the smile and the fulness of love2 still had she worn the air of one who knew whither her steps were tending2 and the profound certainty that dwelt within her still had proclaimed that she had known how to make her peace1 far up on the heights1 with the great disquiet and misery of the world4 ,we should never have known of her--that is all4 ,there is much to be learned from this humble life1 and yet were it perhaps not well to hold it forth as an example to such as already incline overmuch to resignation1 for these it might mislead4 ,it is a life that would seem to have been wholly passive--and to be passive is not good for all4 ,she died a virgin in her twenty-ninth year3 and it is sad to die a virgin4 ,is it not the paramount duty of every human being to offer to his destiny all that can be offered to the destiny of man8 ,and indeed we had far better leave behind us work unfinished than life itself incomplete4 ,it is good to be indifferent to vain or idle pleasures2 but we have no right almost voluntarily to neglect the most important chances of indispensable happiness4 ,the soul that is unhappy may have within it cause for noble regret4 ,to look largely on the sadness of one's life is to make essay1 in the darkness1 of the wings that shall one day enable us to soar high above this sadness4 ,effort was lacking1 perhaps1 in ,emily ,bronte's life4 7,in her soul there was wealth of passion and freedom and daring1 but in her life timidity1 silence1 inertness1 conventions1 and prejudice2 the very things that in thought she despised47 ,this is the history often of the too-meditative soul4 ,but it is difficult to pass judgment on an entire existence2 and here there were much to be said of the devotion wherewith she sacrificed the best years of her youth to an undeserving1 though unfortunate1 brother4 ,our remarks then1 in a case such as this1 must be understood generally only2 but still1 how long and how narrow is the path that leads from the soul to life6 ,our thoughts of love1 of justice and loyalty1 our thoughts of bold ambition--what are all these but acorns that fall from the oak in the forest8 and must not thousands and tens of thousands be lost and rot in the lichen ere a single tree spring to life8 ,she had a beautiful soul1 said1 speaking of another woman1 the woman whose words ,i quoted above1 a wide intellect1 and tender heart1 but ere these qualities could issue forth into life they had perforce to traverse a straitened character4 ,again and again have ,i wondered at this want of self-knowledge1 of return to self4 ,the man who would wish us to see the deepest recess of his life will begin by telling us all that he thinks and he feels1 will lead as to his point of view2 we are conscious1 perhaps1 of much elevation of soul2 then1 as we enter with him still further into his life1 he tells of his conduct1 his joys and his sorrows2 and in these we detect not a gleam of the soul that had shone through his thoughts and desires4 ,when the trumpet is sounded for action1 the instincts rush in1 the character hastens between2 but the soul stands aloof3 the soul1 which is man's very highest1 being like the princess who elects to live on in arrogant penury rather than soil her hands with ordinary labour4 ,yes1 alas1 all is useless till such time as we have learned to harden our hands2 to transform the gold and silver of thought into a key that shall open1 not the ivory gate of our dreams1 but the very door of this our dwelling--into a cup that shall hold1 not only the wondrous water of dreams1 but the living water that falls1 drop by drop1 on our roof--into scales1 not content vaguely to balance schemes for the future1 but that record1 with unerring accuracy1 what we have done to-day4 ,the very loftiest ideal has taken no root within us1 so long as it penetrate not every limb1 so long as it palpitate not at our finger-tip4 ,some there are whose intellect profits by this return to self2 with others1 the character gains4 ,the first have clearest vision for all that concerns not themselves1 that calls them not to action2 but it is above all when stern reality confronts them1 and time for action has come1 that the eyes of the others glow bright4 ,one might almost believe in there being an intellectual consciousness1 languidly resting for ever upon an immovable throne1 whence she issues commands to the will through faithless or indolent envoys1 and a moral consciousness1 incessantly stirring1 afoot1 at all times ready to march4 ,it may be that this latter consciousness depends on the former--indeed who shall say that she is not the former1 wearied from long repose1 wherein she has learned all that was to be learned2 that has at last determined to rise1 to descend the steps of inactivity and sally forth into life8 ,and all will be well1 if only she have not tarried so long that her limbs refuse their office4 ,is it not preferable sometimes to act in opposition to our thoughts than never dare to act in accord with them8 ,rarely indeed is the active error irremediable2 men and things are quickly on the spot1 eager to set it right2 but they are helpless before the passive error that has shunned contact with the real4 ,let all this1 however1 by no means be construed into meaning that the intellectual consciousness must be starved1 or its growth arrested1 for fear lest it outpace the moral consciousness4 ,we need have no fear2 no ideal conceived by man can be too admirable for life to conform with it4 ,to float the smallest act of justice or love requires a very torrent of desire for good4 ,for our conduct only to be honest we must have thoughts within us ten times loftier than our conduct4 ,even to keep somewhat clear of evil bespeaks enormous craving for good4 ,of all the forces in the world there is none melts so quickly away as the thought that has to descend into everyday life2 wherefore we must needs be heroic in thought for our deeds to pass muster1 or at the least be harmless4 #ajc4 ,let us once again1 and for the last time1 return to obscure destinies4 ,they teach us that1 physical misfortune apart1 there is remedy for all2 and that to complain of destiny is only to expose our own feebleness of soul4 ,we are told in the history of ,rome how a certain ,julius ,sabinus1 a senator from ,gaul1 headed a revolt against the ,emperor ,vespasian1 and was duly defeated4 ,he might have sought refuge among the ,germans1 but only by leaving his young wife1 ,eponina1 behind him1 and he had not the heart to forsake her4 ,at moments of disaster and sorrow we learn the true value of life2 nor did ,julius ,sabinus welcome the idea of death4 ,he possessed a villa1 beneath which there stretched vast subterranean caverns1 known only to him and two freedmen4 ,this villa he caused to be burned1 and the rumour was spread that he had sought death by poison1 and that his body was consumed by the flames4 ,eponina herself was deceived1 says ,plutarch1 whose story ,i follow1 with the additions made thereto by the ,comte de ,champagny1 the historian of ,antoninus2 and when ,martialis the freedman told her of her husband's self-slaughter1 she lay for three days and three nights on the ground1 refusing all nourishment4 ,when ,sabinus heard of her grief1 he took pity and caused her to know that he lived4 ,she none the less mourned and shed floods of tears1 in the daytime1 when people were near1 but when night fell she sought him below in his cavern4 ,for seven long months did she thus confront the shades1 every night1 to be with her husband2 she even attempted to help him escape2 she shaved off his hair and his beard1 wrapped his head round with fillets1 disguised him1 and then had him sent1 in a bundle of clothes1 to her own native city4 ,but his stay there becoming unsafe1 she soon brought him back to his cavern2 and herself divided her stay between town and the country1 spending her nights with him1 and from time to time going to town to be seen by her friends4 ,she became big with child1 and1 by means of an unguent wherewith she anointed her body1 her condition remained unsuspected by even the women at the baths1 which at that time were taken in common4 ,and when her confinement drew nigh she went down to her cavern1 and there1 with no midwife1 alone1 she gave birth to two sons1 as a lioness throws off her cubs4 ,she nourished her twins with her milk1 she nursed them through childhood2 and for nine years she stood by her husband in the gloom and the darkness4 ,but ,sabinus at last was discovered and taken to ,rome4 ,he surely would seem to have merited ,vespasian's pardon4 ,eponina led forth the two sons she had reared in the depths of the earth1 and said to the ,emperor1 ,these have ,i brought into the world and fed on my milk1 that we might one day be more to implore thy forgiveness4 ,tears filled the eyes of all who were there2 but ,caesar stood firm1 and the brave ,gaul at last was reduced to demand permission to die with her husband4 ,i have known more happiness with him in the darkness1 she cried1 than thou ever shalt know1 ,o ,caesar1 in the full glare of the sunshine1 or in all the splendour of thy mighty empire4 ,who that has a heart within him can doubt the truth of her words1 or think without longing of the darkness that so great a love illumined8 ,many a dreary1 miserable hour must have crawled by as they crouched in their hiding-place2 but are there any1 even among those who care only for the pettiest pleasures of life1 who would not rather love with such depth and fervour in what was almost a tomb1 than flaunt a frigid affection in the heat and light of the sun8 ,eponina's magnificent cry is the cry of all those whose hearts have been touched by love2 as it is also the cry of those whose soul has discovered an interest1 duty1 or even a hope1 in life4 ,the flame that inspired ,eponina inspires the sage also1 lost in monotonous hours as she in her gloomy retreat4 ,love is the unconscious sun of our soul2 and it is when its beams are most ardent1 and purest1 that they bear most surprising resemblance to those that the soul1 aglow with justice and truth1 with beauty and majesty1 has kindled within itself1 and adds to1 incessantly4 ,is not the happiness that accident brought to the heart of ,eponina within reach of every heart1 so the will to possess it be there8 ,is not all that was sweetest in this love of hers--the devotion of self1 the transformation of regret into happiness1 of pleasure renounced into joy that abides in the heart for ever2 the interest awakened each day by the feeblest glimmer of light1 so it fall on a thing one admires2 the immersion in radiance1 in happiness susceptible of infinite expansion1 for one has only to worship the more--are not all these1 and a thousand other forces no less helpful1 no less consoling1 to be found in the intensest life of our soul1 of our heart1 of our thoughts8 ,and was ,eponina's love other than a sudden lightning flash from this life of the soul1 come to her1 all unconscious and unprepared8 ,love does not always reflect2 often indeed does it need no reflection1 no search into self1 to enjoy what is best in thought2 but1 none the less1 all that is best in love is closely akin to all that is best in thought4 ,suffering seemed ever radiant in aspect to ,eponina1 because of her love2 but cannot this thing that love brings about1 all unknowing1 by fortunate accident1 be also achieved by thought1 meditation1 by the habit of looking beyond our immediate trouble1 and being more joyous than fate would seem to demand8 ,to ,eponina there came not a sorrow but kindled yet one more torch in the gloom of her cavern2 and does not the sadness that forces the soul back into itself1 to the retreat it has made1 kindle deep consolation there8 ,and1 as the noble ,eponina has taken us back to the days of persecution1 may we not liken such sorrow to the pagan executioner who1 suddenly touched by grace1 or perhaps admiration1 in the very midst of the torture that he was inflicting1 flung himself down headlong at the feet of his victim1 speaking words of tenderest sympathy2 who demanded to share her suffering1 and finally besought1 in a kiss1 to be told the way to her heaven4 #ajd4 ,go where we will1 the plentiful river of life flows on1 beneath the canopy of heaven4 ,it flows between prison walls1 where the sun never gleams on its waters2 as it flows by the palace steps1 where all is gladness and glory4 ,not our concern the depth of this river1 or its width1 or the strength of its current1 as it streams on for ever1 pertaining to all2 but of deepest importance to us is the size and the purity of the cup that we plunge in its waters4 ,for whatever of life we absorb must needs take the form of this cup1 as this1 too1 has taken the form of our thoughts and our feelings2 being modelled1 indeed1 on the breast of our intimate destiny as the breast of a goddess once served for the cup of the sculptor of old4 ,every man has the cup of his fashioning1 and most often the cup he has learned to desire4 ,when we murmur at fate1 let our grievance be only that she grafted not in our heart the wish for1 or thought of1 a cup more ample and perfect4 ,for indeed in the wish alone does inequality lie1 but this inequality vanishes the moment it has been perceived4 ,does the thought that our wish might be nobler not at once bring nobility with it2 does not the breast of our destiny throb to this new aspiration1 thereby expanding the docile cup of the ideal--the cup whose metal is pliable1 still to the cold stern hour of death8 ,no cause for complaint has he who has learned that his feelings are lacking in generous ardour1 or the other who nurses within him a hope for a little more happiness1 a little more beauty1 a little more justice4 ,for here all things come to pass in the way that they tell us it happens with the felicity of the elect1 of whom each one is robed in gladness1 and wears the garment befitting his stature4 ,nor can he desire a happiness more perfect than the happiness which he possesses1 without the desire wherewith he desired at once bringing fulfilment with it4 ,if ,i envy with noble envy the happiness of those who are able to plunge a heavier cup1 and more radiant than mine1 there where the great river is brightest1 ,i have1 though ,i know it not1 my excellent share of all that they draw from the river1 and my lips repose by the side of their lips on the rim of the shining cup4 #aje4 ,it may be remembered perhaps that1 before these digressions1 we spoke of a woman whose friend asked her1 wonderingly1 ,can any man be worthy of your love8 ,the same question might have been asked of ,emily ,bronte1 as indeed of many others2 and in this world there are thousands of souls1 of loftiest intention1 that do yet forfeit the best years of love in constant self-interrogation as to the future of their affections4 ,nay1 more--in the empire of destiny it is to the image of love that the great mass of complaints and regrets come flocking2 the image of love around which hover sluggish desire1 extravagant hope1 and fears engendered of vanity4 ,at root of all this is much pride1 and counterfeit poetry1 and falsehood4 ,the soul that is misunderstood is most often the one that has made the least effort to gain some knowledge of self4 ,the feeblest ideal1 the one that is narrowest1 straitest1 most often will thrive on deception and fear1 on exaction and petty contempt4 ,we dread above all lest any should slight1 or pass by unnoticed1 the virtues and thoughts1 the spiritual beauty1 that exist only in our imagination4 ,it is with merits of this nature as it is with our material welfare--hope clings most persistently to that which we probably never shall have the strength to acquire4 ,the cheat through whose mind some momentary thought of amendment has passed1 is amazed that we offer not instant1 surpassing homage to the feeling of honour that has1 for brief space1 found shelter within him4 ,but if we are truly pure1 and sincere1 and unselfish2 if our thoughts soar aloft of themselves1 in all simpleness1 high above vanity or instinctive selfishness1 then are we far less concerned than those who are near us should understand1 should approve1 or admire4 ,epictetus1 ,marcus ,aurelius1 ,antoninus ,pius are not known to have ever complained that men could not understand them4 ,they hugged no belief to themselves that something extraordinary1 incomprehensible1 lay buried within them2 they held1 on the contrary1 that whatever was best in their virtue was that which it needed no effort for all men to grasp and admit4 ,but there are some morbid virtues that are passed by unnoticed1 and not without reason--for there will almost always be some superior reason for the powerlessness of a feeling--morbid virtues to which we often ascribe far too great an importance2 and that virtue will surely be morbid that we rate over highly and hold to deserve the respectful attention of others4 ,in a morbid virtue there is often more harm than there is in a healthy vice2 in any event it is farther removed from truth2 and there is but little to hope for when we are divided from truth4 ,as our ideal becomes loftier so does it become more real2 and the nobler our soul1 the less does it dread that it meet not a soul of its stature2 for it must have drawn near unto truth1 in whose neighbourhood all things must take of its greatness4 ,when ,dante had gained the third sphere1 and stood in the midst of the heavenly lights1 all shining with uniform splendour1 he saw that around him naught moved1 and wondered was he standing motionless there1 or indeed drawing nearer unto the seat of ,god8 ,so he cast his eyes upon ,beatrice2 and she seemed more beautiful to him2 wherefore he knew that he was approaching his goal4 ,and so can we too count the steps that we take on the highway of truth1 by the increase of love that comes for all that goes with us in life2 the increase of love and of glad curiosity1 of respect and of deep admiration4 #ajf4 ,men1 as a rule1 sally forth from their homes seeking beauty and joy1 truth and love2 and are glad to be able to say to their children1 on their return1 that they have met nothing4 ,to be for ever complaining argues much pride2 and those who accuse love and life are the ones who imagine that these should bestow something more than they can acquire for themselves4 ,love1 it is true1 like all else1 claims the highest possible ideal2 but every ideal that conforms not with some strenuous inward1 reality is nothing but falsehood--sterile and futile1 obsequious falsehood4 ,two or three ideals1 that lie out of our reach1 will suffice to paralyse life4 ,it is wrong to believe that loftiness of soul is governed by the loftiness of desire or dream4 ,the dreams of the weak will be often more numerous1 lovelier1 than are those of the strong2 for these dreams absorb all their energy1 all their activity4 ,the perpetual craving for loftiness does not count in our moral advancement if it be not the shadow thrown by the life we have lived1 by the firm and experienced will that has come in close kinship with man4 ,then1 indeed1 as one places a rod at the foot of the steeple to tell of its height by the shadow1 so may we lead forth this craving of ours to the midst of the plain that is lit by the sun of external reality1 that thus we may tell what relation exists between the shadow thrown by the hour and the dome of eternity4 #ajg4 ,it is well that a noble heart should await a great love2 better still that this heart1 all expectant1 should cease not from loving2 and that1 as it loves1 it should scarcely be conscious of its desire for more exquisite love4 ,in love as in life1 expectation avails us but little2 through loving we learn to love2 and it is the so-called disillusions of pettier love that will1 the most simply and faithfully1 feed the immovable flame of the mightier love that shall come1 it may be1 to illumine the rest of our life4 ,we treat disillusions often with scantiest justice4 ,we conceive them of sorrowful countenance1 pale and discouraged2 whereas they are really the very first smiles of truth4 ,why should disillusion distress you1 if you are a man of honest intention1 if you strive to be just1 and of service2 if you seek to be happy and wise8 ,would you rather live on in the world of your dreams and your errors than in the world that is real8 ,only too often does many a promising nature waste its most precious hours in the struggle of beautiful dream against inevitable law1 whose beauty is only perceived when every vestige of strength has been sapped by the exquisite dream4 ,if love has deceived you1 do you think that it would have been better for you all your life to regard love as something it is not1 and never can be8 ,would such an illusion not warp your most significant actions2 would it not for many days hide from you some part of the truth that you seek8 ,or if you imagine that greatness lay in your grasp1 and disillusion has taken you back to your place in the second rank2 have you the right1 for the rest of your life1 to curse the envoy of truth8 ,for1 after all1 was it not truth your illusion was seeking1 assuming it to have been sincere8 ,we should try to regard disillusions as mysterious1 faithful friends1 as councillors none can corrupt1 ,and should there be one more cruel than the rest1 that for an instant prostrates you1 do not murmur to yourself through your tears that life is less beautiful than you had dreamed it to be1 but rather that in your dream there must have been something lacking1 since real life has failed to approve4 ,and indeed the much-vaunted strength of the strenuous soul is built up of disillusions only1 that this soul has cheerfully welcomed4 ,every deception and love disappointed1 every hope that has crumbled to dust1 is possessed of a strength of its own that it adds to the strength of your truth2 and the more disillusions there are that fall to the earth at your feet1 the more surely and nobly will great reality shine on you--even as the rays of the sun are beheld the more clearly in winter1 as they pierce through the leafless branches of the trees of the forest4 #ajh4 ,and if it be a great love that you seek1 how can you believe that a soul shall be met with of beauty as great as you dream it to be1 if you seek it with nothing but dreams8 ,have you the right to expect that definite words and positive actions shall offer themselves in exchange for mere formless desire1 and yearning1 and vision8 ,yet thus it is most of us act4 ,and if some fortunate chance at last accords our desire1 and places us in presence of the being who is all we had dreamed her to be--are we entitled to hope that our idle and wandering cravings shall long be in unison with her vigorous1 established reality8 ,our ideal will never be met with in life unless we have first achieved it within us to the fullest extent in our power4 ,do you hope to discover and win for yourself a loyal1 profound1 inexhaustible soul1 loving and quick with life1 faithful and powerful1 unconstrained1 free3 generous1 brave1 and benevolent--if you know less well than this soul what all these qualities mean8 ,and how should you know1 if you have not loved them and lived in their midst1 as this soul has loved and lived8 ,most exacting of all things1 unskilful1 thick-sighted1 is the moral beauty1 perfection1 or goodness that is still in the shape of desire4 ,if it be your one hope to meet with an ideal soul1 would it not be well that you yourself should endeavour to draw nigh to your own ideal8 ,be sure that by no other means will you ever obtain your desire4 ,and as you approach this ideal it will dawn on you more and more clearly how fortunate and wisely ordained it has been that the ideal should ever be different from what our vague hopes were expecting4 ,so too when the ideal takes shape1 as it comes into contact with life1 will it soften1 expand1 and lose its rigidity1 incessantly growing more noble4 ,and then will you readily perceive1 in the creature you love1 all that which is eternally true in yourself1 and solidly righteous1 and essentially beautiful2 for only the good in our heart can advise us of the goodness that hides by our side4 ,then1 at last1 will the imperfections of others no longer seem of importance to you1 for they will no longer be able to wound your vanity1 selfishness1 and ignorance2 imperfections1 that is1 which have ceased to resemble your own2 for it is the evil that lies in ourselves that is ever least tolerant of the evil that dwells within others4 #aji4 ,let us have the same confidence in love that we have in life2 for confidence is of our essence2 and the thought that works the most harm in all things is the one that inclines us to look with mistrust on reality4 ,i have known more than one life that love broke asunder2 but if it had not been love1 these lives would no doubt have been broken no less by friendship or apathy1 by doubt1 hesitation1 indifference1 inaction4 ,for that only which in itself is fragile can be rent in the heart by love2 and where all is broken that the heart contains1 then must all have been far too frail4 ,there exists not a creature but must more than once have believed that his life was crushed2 but they whose life has indeed been shattered1 and has fallen to ruin1 owe their misfortune often to some strange vanity of the very ruin4 ,fortunate and unfortunate hazards there must of necessity be in love as in all the rest of our destiny4 ,it may so come about that one whose spirit and heart are abounding with tenderness1 energy1 and the noblest of human desires1 shall meet1 on his first setting forth1 all unsought1 the soul that shall satisfy each single craving of love in the ecstasy of permanent joy2 the soul that shall content the loftiest yearning no less than the lowliest3 the vastest1 the mightiest no less than the daintiest1 sweetest3 the most eternal no less than the most evanescent4 ,he1 it may be1 shall instantly find the heart whereto he can give--the heart which will ever receive--all that is best in himself4 ,it may happen that he shall at once have attained the soul that perchance is unique2 the soul that is satisfied always1 and always filled with desire2 the soul that can ever receive many thousand times more than is given1 and that never fails to return many thousand times more than it receives4 ,for the love that the years cannot alter is built up of exchanges like these1 of sweet inequality2 and naught do we ever truly possess but that which we give in our love2 and whatever our love bestows1 we are no longer alone to enjoy4 #aaj4 ,destinies sometimes are met with that thus are perfectly happy2 and each man1 it may be1 is entitled to hope that such may one day be his2 yet must his hope be never permitted to fasten chains on his life4 ,all he can do is to make preparation one day to deserve such a love2 and he will be most patient and tranquil who incessantly strives to this end4 ,it might so have happened that he whom we spoke of just now should1 day after day1 from youth to old age1 have passed by the side of the wall behind which his happiness lay waiting1 enwrapped in too secret a silence4 ,but if happiness lie yonder side of the wall1 must despair and disaster of necessity dwell on the other8 ,is not something of happiness to be found in our thus being able to pass by the side of our happiness8 ,is it not better to feel that a mere slender chance--transparent1 one almost might call it--is all that extends between us and the exquisite love that we dream of1 than to be divided for ever therefrom by all that is worthless within us1 undeserving1 inhuman1 abnormal8 ,happy is he who can gather the flower1 and bear it away in his bosom2 yet have we no cause to pity the other who walks until nightfall1 steeped in the glorious perfume of the flower no eyes can behold4 ,must the life be a failure1 useless and valueless1 that is not as completely happy as it possibly might have been8 ,it is you yourself would have brought what was best in the love you regret2 and if1 as we said1 the soul at the end possess only what it has given1 does not something already belong to us when we are incessantly seeking for chances of giving8 ,ah yes--,i declare that the joy of a perfect1 abiding love is the greatest this world contains2 and yet1 if you find not this love1 naught will be lost of all you have done to deserve it1 for this will go to deepen the peace of your heart1 and render still braver and purer the calm of the rest of your days4 #aaa4 ,and1 besides1 we always can love4 ,if our own love be admirable1 most of the joys of admirable love will be ours4 ,in the most perfect love1 the lovers' happiness will not be exactly the same1 be their union never so close2 for the better of the two needs must love with a love that is deeper2 and the one that loves with a deeper love must be surely the happier4 ,let your task be to render yourself worthy of love--and this even more for your own happiness than for that of another4 ,for be sure that when love is unequal1 and the hours come clouded with sorrow1 it is not the wiser of the two who will suffer the most--not the one that shows more generosity1 justice1 more high-minded passion4 ,the one who is better will rarely become the victim deserving our pity4 ,for1 indeed1 to be truly a victim it must be our own faults1 our injustice1 wrongdoing1 beneath which we suffer4 ,however imperfect you be1 you still may suffice for the love of a marvellous being2 but for your love1 if you are not perfect1 that being will never suffice4 ,if fortune one day should lead to your dwelling the woman adorned with each gift of heart and of intellect--such a woman as history tells of1 a heroine of glory1 happiness1 love--you will still be all unaware if you have not learned1 yourself1 to detect and to love these gifts in actual life2 and what is actual life to each man but the life that he lives himself8 ,all that is loyal within you will flower in the loyalty of the woman you love2 whatever of truth there abides in your soul will be soothed by the truth that is hers2 and her strength of character can be only enjoyed by that which is strong in you4 ,and when a virtue of the being we love finds not1 on the threshold of our heart1 a virtue that resembles it somewhat1 then is it all unaware to whom it shall give the gladness it brings4 #aab4 ,and whatever the fate your affections may meet with1 do you never lose courage2 above all1 do not think that1 love's happiness having passed by you1 you will never1 right up to the end1 know the great joy of human life4 ,for though happiness appear in the form of a torrent1 or a river that flows underground1 of a whirlpool or tranquil lake1 its source still is ever the same that lies deep down in our heart2 and the unhappiest man of all men can conceive an idea of great joy4 ,it is true that in love there is ecstasy that he doubtless never will know2 but this ecstasy would leave deep melancholy only in the earnest and faithful heart1 if there were not in veritable love something more stable than ecstasy1 more profound and more steadfast2 and all that in love is profoundest1 most stable and steadfast1 is profoundest in noble lives too--is most stable and steadfast in them4 ,not to all men is it given to be hero or genius1 victorious1 admirable always1 or even to be simply happy in exterior things2 but it lies in the power of the least favoured among us to be loyal1 and gentle1 and just1 to be generous and brotherly2 he that has least gifts of all can learn to look on his fellows without envy or hatred1 without malice or futile regret2 the outcast can take his strange1 silent part 7which is not always that of least service7 in the gladness of those who are near him2 he that has barely a talent can still learn to forgive an offence with an ever nobler forgiveness1 can find more excuses for error1 more admiration for human word and deed2 and the man there are none to love can love1 and reverence1 love4 ,and1 acting thus1 he too will have drawn near the source whither happy ones flock--oftener far than one thinks1 and in the most ardent hours of happiness even--the source over which they bend1 to make sure that they truly are happy4 ,far down1 at the root of love's joys--as at the root of the humble life of the upright man from whom fate has withheld her smile--it is confidence1 sincerity1 generosity1 tenderness1 that alone are truly fixed and unchangeable4 ,love throws more lustre still on these points of light1 and therefore must love be sought4 ,for the greatest advantage of love is that it reveals to us many a peaceful and gentle truth4 ,the greatest advantage of love is that it gives us occasion to love and admire in one person1 sole and unique1 what we should have had neither knowledge nor strength to love and admire in the many2 and that thus it expands our heart for the time to come1 ,and at the root of the most marvellous love there never is more than the simplest felicity1 an adoration1 a tenderness within the understanding of all1 a security1 faith1 and fidelity all can acquire an intensely human admiration1 devotion--and all these the eager1 unfortunate heart could know too1 in its sorrowful life1 had it only a little less impatience and bitterness1 a little more initiative and energy4 ,,the ,,end