,,the ,,prophet ,by ,kahlil ,gibran ,new ,york3 ,alfred ,a4 ,knopf #aibc ,the ,twelve ,illustrations ,in ,this ,volume ,are ,reproduced ,from ,original ,drawings ,by ,the ,author 8,his power came from some great reservoir of spiritual life else it could not have been so universal and so potent1 but the majesty and beauty of the language with which he clothed it were all his own80 --,claude ,bragdon ,,the ,,books ,,of ,,kahlil ,,gibran ,the ,madman4 #aiah ,twenty ,drawings4 #aiai ,the ,forerunner4 #aibj ,the ,prophet4 #aibc ,sand and ,foam4 #aibf ,jesus the ,son of ,man4 #aibh ,the ,forth ,gods4 #aica ,the ,wanderer4 #aicb ,the ,garden of the ,prophet #aicc ,prose ,poems4 #aicd ,nymphs of the ,valley4 #aidh ,,contents ,the ,coming of the ,ship ,on ,love ,on ,marriage ,on ,children ,on ,giving ,on ,eating and ,drinking ,on ,work ,on ,joy and ,sorrow ,on ,houses ,on ,clothes ,on ,buying and ,selling ,on ,crime and ,punishment ,on ,laws ,on ,freedom ,on ,reason and ,passion ,on ,pain ,on ,self-,knowledge ,on ,teaching ,on ,friendship ,on ,talking ,on ,time ,on ,good and ,evil ,on ,prayer ,on ,pleasure ,on ,beauty ,on ,religion ,on ,death ,the ,farewell ,,the ,,prophet ,almustafa1 the chosen and the beloved1 who was a dawn unto his own day1 had waited twelve years in the city of ,orphalese for his ship that was to return and bear him back to the isle of his birth4 ,and in the twelfth year1 on the seventh day of ,ielool1 the month of reaping1 he climbed the hill without the city walls and looked seaward2 and he beheld his ship coming with the mist4 ,then the gates of his heart were flung open1 and his joy flew far over the sea4 ,and he closed his eyes and prayed in the silences of his soul4 9999999999 ,but as he descended the hill1 a sadness came upon him1 and he thought in his heart3 ,how shall ,i go in peace and without sorrow8 ,nay1 not without a wound in the spirit shall ,i leave this city4 ,long were the days of pain ,i have spent within its walls1 and long were the nights of aloneness2 and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret8 ,too many fragments of the spirit have ,i scattered in these streets1 and too many are the children of my longing that walk naked among these hills1 and ,i cannot withdraw from them without a burden and an ache4 ,it is not a garment ,i cast off this day1 but a skin that ,i tear with my own hands4 ,nor is it a thought ,i leave behind me1 but a heart made sweet with hunger and with thirst4 9999999999 ,yet ,i cannot tarry longer4 ,the sea that calls all things unto her calls me1 and ,i must embark4 ,for to stay1 though the hours burn in the night1 is to freeze and crystallize and be bound in a mould4 ,fain would ,i take with me all that is here4 ,but how shall ,i8 ,a voice cannot carry the tongue and the lips that gave it wings4 ,alone must it seek the ether4 ,and alone and without his nest shall the eagle fly across the sun4 9999999999 ,now when he reached the foot of the hill1 he turned again towards the sea1 and he saw his ship approaching the harbour1 and upon her prow the mariners1 the men of his own land4 ,and his soul cried out to them1 and he said3 ,sons of my ancient mother1 you riders of the tides1 ,how often have you sailed in my dreams4 ,and now you come in my awakening1 which is my deeper dream4 ,ready am ,i to go1 and my eagerness with sails full set awaits the wind4 ,only another breath will ,i breathe in this still air1 only another loving look cast backward1 ,and then ,i shall stand among you1 a seafarer among seafarers4 ,and you1 vast sea1 sleepless mother1 ,who alone are peace and freedom to the river and the stream1 ,only another winding will this stream make1 only another murmur in this glade1 ,and then shall ,i come to you1 a boundless drop to a boundless ocean4 9999999999 ,and as he walked he saw from afar men and women leaving their fields and their vineyards and hastening towards the city gates4 ,and he heard their voices calling his name1 and shouting from field to field telling one another of the coming of his ship4 ,and he said to himself3 ,shall the day of parting be the day of gathering8 ,and shall it be said that my eve was in truth my dawn8 ,and what shall ,i give unto him who has left his plough in midfurrow1 or to him who has stopped the wheel of his winepress8 ,shall my heart become a tree heavy-laden with fruit that ,i may gather and give unto them8 ,and shall my desires flow like a fountain that ,i may fill their cups8 ,am ,i a harp that the hand of the mighty may touch me1 or a flute that his breath may pass through me8 ,a seeker of silences am ,i1 and what treasure have ,i found in silences that ,i may dispense with confidence8 ,if this is my day of harvest1 in what fields have ,i sowed the seed1 and in what unremembered seasons8 ,if this indeed be the hour in which ,i lift up my lantern1 it is not my flame that shall burn therein4 ,empty and dark shall ,i raise my lantern1 ,and the guardian of the night shall fill it with oil and he shall light it also4 9999999999 ,these things he said in words4 ,but much in his heart remained unsaid4 ,for he himself could not speak his deeper secret4 9999999999 ,illustration3 #jjbj ,and when he entered into the city all the people came to meet him1 and they were crying out to him as with one voice4 ,and the elders of the city stood forth and said3 ,go not yet away from us4 ,a noontide have you been in our twilight1 and your youth has given us dreams to dream4 ,no stranger are you among us1 nor a guest1 but our son and our dearly beloved4 ,suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face4 9999999999 ,and the priests and the priestesses said unto him3 ,let not the waves of the sea separate us now1 and the years you have spent in our midst become a memory4 ,you have walked among us a spirit1 and your shadow has been a light upon our faces4 ,much have we loved you4 ,but speechless was our love1 and with veils has it been veiled4 ,yet now it cries aloud unto you1 and would stand revealed before you4 ,and ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation4 9999999999 ,and others came also and entreated him4 ,but he answered them not4 ,he only bent his head2 and those who stood near saw his tears falling upon his breast4 ,and he and the people proceeded towards the great square before the temple4 ,and there came out of the sanctuary a woman whose name was ,almitra4 ,and she was a seeress4 ,and he looked upon her with exceeding tenderness1 for it was she who had first sought and believed in him when he had been but a day in their city4 ,and she hailed him1 saying3 ,prophet of ,god1 in quest of the uttermost1 long have you searched the distances for your ship4 ,and now your ship has come1 and you must needs go4 ,deep is your longing for the land of your memories and the dwelling place of your greater desires2 and our love would not bind you nor our needs hold you4 ,yet this we ask ere you leave us1 that you speak to us and give us of your truth4 ,and we will give it unto our children1 and they unto their children1 and it shall not perish4 ,in your aloneness you have watched with our days1 and in your wakefulness you have listened to the weeping and the laughter of our sleep4 ,now therefore disclose us to ourselves1 and tell us all that has been shown you of that which is between birth and death4 9999999999 ,and he answered1 ,people of ,orphalese1 of what can ,i speak save of that which is even now moving within your souls8 9999999999 9999999999 ,then said ,almitra1 ,speak to us of ,love4 ,and he raised his head and looked upon the people1 and there fell a stillness upon them4 ,and with a great voice he said3 ,when love beckons to you1 follow him1 ,though his ways are hard and steep4 ,and when his wings enfold you yield to him1 ,though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you4 ,and when he speaks to you believe in him1 ,though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden4 ,for even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you4 ,even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning4 ,even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun1 ,so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth4 9999999999 ,like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself4 ,he threshes you to make you naked4 ,he sifts you to free you from your husks4 ,he grinds you to whiteness4 ,he kneads you until you are pliant2 ,and then he assigns you to his sacred fire1 that you may become sacred bread for ,god's sacred feast4 9999999999 ,all these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart1 and in that knowledge become a fragment of ,life's heart4 ,but if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure1 ,then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor1 ,into the seasonless world where you shall laugh1 but not all of your laughter1 and weep1 but not all of your tears4 9999999999 ,love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself4 ,love possesses not nor would it be possessed2 ,for love is sufficient unto love4 ,when you love you should not say1 8,god is in my heart10 but rather1 8,i am in the heart of ,god40 ,and think not you can direct the course of love1 for love1 if it finds you worthy1 directs your course4 ,love has no other desire but to fulfil itself4 ,but if you love and must needs have desires1 let these be your desires3 ,to melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night4 ,to know the pain of too much tenderness4 ,to be wounded by your own understanding of love2 ,and to bleed willingly and joyfully4 ,to wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving2 ,to rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstacy2 ,to return home at eventide with gratitude2 ,and then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips4 ,illustration3 #jjbi 9999999999 9999999999 ,then ,almitra spoke again and said1 ,and what of ,marriage master8 ,and he answered saying3 ,you were born together1 and together you shall be forevermore4 ,you shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days4 ,aye1 you shall be together even in the silent memory of ,god4 ,but let there be spaces in your togetherness1 ,and let the winds of the heavens dance between you4 9999999999 ,love one another1 but make not a bond of love3 ,let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls4 ,fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup4 ,give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf4 ,sing and dance together and be joyous1 but let each one of you be alone1 ,even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music4 9999999999 ,give your hearts1 but not into each other's keeping4 ,for only the hand of ,life can contain your hearts4 ,and stand together yet not too near together3 ,for the pillars of the temple stand apart1 ,and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow4 ,illustration3 #jjcb 9999999999 9999999999 ,and a woman who held a babe against her bosom said1 ,speak to us of ,children4 ,and he said3 ,your children are not your children4 ,they are the sons and daughters of ,life's longing for itself4 ,they come through you but not from you1 ,and though they are with you yet they belong not to you4 9999999999 ,you may give them your love but not your thoughts1 ,for they have their own thoughts4 ,you may house their bodies but not their souls1 ,for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow1 which you cannot visit1 not even in your dreams4 ,you may strive to be like them1 but seek not to make them like you4 ,for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday4 ,you are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth4 ,the archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite1 and ,he bends you with ,his might that ,his arrows may go swift and far4 ,let your bending in the ,archer's hand be for gladness2 ,for even as he loves the arrow that flies1 so ,he loves also the bow that is stable4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then said a rich man1 ,speak to us of ,giving4 ,and he answered3 ,you give but little when you give of your possessions4 ,it is when you give of yourself that you truly give4 ,for what are your possessions but things you keep and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow8 ,and tomorrow1 what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city8 ,and what is fear of need but need itself8 ,is not dread of thirst when your well is full1 the thirst that is unquenchable8 ,there are those who give little of the much which they have--and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire makes their gifts unwholesome4 ,and there are those who have little and give it all4 ,these are the believers in life and the bounty of life1 and their coffer is never empty4 ,there are those who give with joy1 and that joy is their reward4 ,and there are those who give with pain1 and that pain is their baptism4 ,and there are those who give and know not pain in giving1 nor do they seek joy1 nor give with mindfulness of virtue2 ,they give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space4 ,through the hands of such as these ,god speaks1 and from behind their eyes ,he smiles upon the earth4 ,illustration3 #jjci ,it is well to give when asked1 but it is better to give unasked1 through understanding2 ,and to the open-handed the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving4 ,and is there aught you would withhold8 ,all you have shall some day be given2 ,therefore give now1 that the season of giving may be yours and not your inheritors'4 ,you often say1 8,i would give1 but only to the deserving40 ,the trees in your orchard say not so1 nor the flocks in your pasture4 ,they give that they may live1 for to withhold is to perish4 ,surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights1 is worthy of all else from you4 ,and he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream4 ,and what desert greater shall there be1 than that which lies in the courage and the confidence1 nay the charity1 of receiving8 ,and who are you that men should rend their bosom and unveil their pride1 that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed8 ,see first that you yourself deserve to be a giver1 and an instrument of giving4 ,for in truth it is life that gives unto life--while you1 who deem yourself a giver1 are but a witness4 ,and you receivers--and you are all receivers--assume no weight of gratitude1 lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives4 ,rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings2 ,for to be overmindful of your debt1 is to doubt his generosity who has the freehearted earth for mother1 and ,god for father4 ,illustration3 #jjdb 9999999999 9999999999 ,then an old man1 a keeper of an inn1 said1 ,speak to us of ,eating and ,drinking4 ,and he said3 ,would that you could live on the fragrance of the earth1 and like an air plant be sustained by the light4 ,but since you must kill to eat1 and rob the newly born of its mother's milk to quench your thirst1 let it then be an act of worship1 ,and let your board stand an altar on which the pure and the innocent of forest and plain are sacrificed for that which is purer and still more innocent in man4 9999999999 ,when you kill a beast say to him in your heart1 8,by the same power that slays you1 ,i too am slain2 and ,i too shall be consumed4 ,for the law that delivered you into my hand shall deliver me into a mightier hand4 ,your blood and my blood is naught but the sap that feeds the tree of heaven40 9999999999 ,and when you crush an apple with your teeth1 say to it in your heart1 8,your seeds shall live in my body1 ,and the buds of your tomorrow shall blossom in my heart1 ,and your fragrance shall be my breath1 ,and together we shall rejoice through all the seasons40 9999999999 ,and in the autumn1 when you gather the grapes of your vineyards for the winepress1 say in your heart1 8,i too am a vineyard1 and my fruit shall be gathered for the winepress1 ,and like new wine ,i shall be kept in eternal vessels40 ,and in winter1 when you draw the wine1 let there be in your heart a song for each cup2 ,and let there be in the song a remembrance for the autumn days1 and for the vineyard1 and for the winepress4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then a ploughman said1 ,speak to us of ,work4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,you work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth4 ,for to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons1 and to step out of life's procession1 that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite4 ,when you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music4 ,which of you would be a reed1 dumb and silent1 when all else sings together in unison8 ,always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune4 ,but ,i say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream1 assigned to you when that dream was born1 ,and in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life1 ,and to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret4 9999999999 ,but if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow1 then ,i answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written4 ,you have been told also that life is darkness1 and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary4 ,and ,i say that life is indeed darkness #8save when there is urge1 ,and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge1 ,and all knowledge is vain save when there is work1 ,and all work is empty save when there is love2 ,and when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself1 and to one another1 and to ,god4 9999999999 ,and what is it to work with love8 ,it is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart1 even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth4 ,it is to build a house with affection1 even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house4 ,it is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy1 even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit4 ,it is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit1 ,and to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching4 ,often have ,i heard you say1 as if speaking in sleep1 8,he who works in marble1 and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone1 is nobler than he who ploughs the soil4 ,and he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man1 is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet40 ,but ,i say1 not in sleep but in the overwakefulness of noontide1 that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass2 ,and he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving4 9999999999 ,work is love made visible4 ,and if you cannot work with love but only with distaste1 it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy4 ,for if you bake bread with indifference1 you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger4 ,and if you grudge the crushing of the grapes1 your grudge distils a poison in the wine4 ,and if you sing though as angels1 and love not the singing1 you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then a woman said1 ,speak to us of ,joy and ,sorrow4 ,and he answered3 ,your joy is your sorrow unmasked4 ,and the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears4 ,and how else can it be8 ,the deeper that sorrow carves into your being1 the more joy you can contain4 ,is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven8 ,and is not the lute that soothes your spirit1 the very wood that was hollowed with knives8 ,when you are joyous1 look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy4 ,when you are sorrowful look again in your heart1 and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight4 9999999999 ,some of you say1 8,joy is greater than sorrow10 and others say1 8,nay1 sorrow is the greater40 ,but ,i say unto you1 they are inseparable4 ,together they come1 and when one sits alone with you at your board1 remember that the other is asleep upon your bed4 ,verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy4 ,only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced4 ,when the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver1 needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then a mason came forth and said1 ,speak to us of ,houses4 ,and he answered and said3 ,build of your imaginings a bower in the wilderness ere you build a house within the city walls4 ,for even as you have home-comings in your twilight1 so has the wanderer in you1 the ever distant and alone4 ,your house is your larger body4 ,it grows in the sun and sleeps in the stillness of the night2 and it is not dreamless4 ,does not your house dream8 and dreaming1 leave the city for grove or hilltop8 ,would that ,i could gather your houses into my hand1 and like a sower scatter them in forest and meadow4 ,would the valleys were your streets1 and the green paths your alleys1 that you might seek one another through vineyards1 and come with the fragrance of the earth in your garments4 ,but these things are not yet to be4 ,in their fear your forefathers gathered you too near together4 ,and that fear shall endure a little longer4 ,a little longer shall your city walls separate your hearths from your fields4 9999999999 ,and tell me1 people of ,orphalese1 what have you in these houses8 ,and what is it you guard with fastened doors8 ,have you peace1 the quiet urge that reveals your power8 ,have you remembrances1 the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind8 ,have you beauty1 that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain8 ,tell me1 have you these in your houses8 ,or have you only comfort1 and the lust for comfort1 that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest1 and then becomes a host1 and then a master8 9999999999 ,ay1 and it becomes a tamer1 and with hook and scourge makes puppets of your larger desires4 ,though its hands are silken1 its heart is of iron4 ,it lulls you to sleep only to stand by your bed and jeer at the dignity of the flesh4 ,it makes mock of your sound senses1 and lays them in thistledown like fragile vessels4 ,verily the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul1 and then walks grinning in the funeral4 ,but you1 children of space1 you restless in rest1 you shall not be trapped nor tamed4 ,your house shall be not an anchor but a mast4 ,it shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound1 but an eyelid that guards the eye4 ,you shall not fold your wings that you may pass through doors1 nor bend your heads that they strike not against a ceiling1 nor fear to breathe lest walls should crack and fall down4 ,you shall not dwell in tombs made by the dead for the living4 ,and though of magnificence and splendour1 your house shall not hold your secret nor shelter your longing4 ,for that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky1 whose door is the morning mist1 and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and the weaver said1 ,speak to us of ,clothes4 ,and he answered3 ,your clothes conceal much of your beauty1 yet they hide not the unbeautiful4 ,and though you seek in garments the freedom of privacy you may find in them a harness and a chain4 ,would that you could meet the sun and the wind with more of your skin and less of your raiment1 ,for the breath of life is in the sunlight and the hand of life is in the wind4 ,some of you say1 8,it is the north wind who has woven the clothes we wear40 ,and ,i say1 ,ay1 it was the north wind1 ,but shame was his loom1 and the softening of the sinews was his thread4 ,and when his work was done he laughed in the forest4 ,forget not that modesty is for a shield against the eye of the unclean4 ,and when the unclean shall be no more1 what were modesty but a fetter and a fouling of the mind8 ,and forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and a merchant said1 ,speak to us of ,buying and ,selling4 ,and he answered and said3 ,to you the earth yields her fruit1 and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands4 ,it is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied4 ,yet unless the exchange be in love and kindly justice1 it will but lead some to greed and others to hunger4 ,when in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices1-- ,invoke then the master spirit of the earth1 to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value4 ,and suffer not the barren-handed to take part in your transactions1 who would sell their words for your labour4 ,to such men you should say1 8,come with us to the field1 or go with our brothers to the sea and cast your net2 ,for the land and the sea shall be bountiful to you even as to us40 9999999999 ,and if there come the singers and the dancers and the flute players1--buy of their gifts also4 ,for they too are gatherers of fruit and frankincense1 and that which they bring1 though fashioned of dreams1 is raiment and food for your soul4 ,and before you leave the market place1 see that no one has gone his way with empty hands4 ,for the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then one of the judges of the city stood forth and said1 ,speak to us of ,crime and ,punishment4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,it is when your spirit goes wandering upon the wind1 ,that you1 alone and unguarded1 commit a wrong unto others and therefore unto yourself4 ,and for that wrong committed must you knock and wait a while unheeded at the gate of the blessed4 ,like the ocean is your god-self2 ,it remains for ever undefiled4 ,and like the ether it lifts but the winged4 ,even like the sun is your god-self2 ,it knows not the ways of the mole nor seeks it the holes of the serpent4 ,but your god-self dwells not alone in your being4 ,much in you is still man1 and much in you is not yet man1 ,but a shapeless pigmy that walks asleep in the mist searching for its own awakening4 ,and of the man in you would ,i now speak4 ,for it is he and not your god-self nor the pigmy in the mist1 that knows crime and the punishment of crime4 9999999999 ,oftentimes have ,i heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you1 but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world4 ,but ,i say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you1 ,so the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also4 ,and as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree1 ,so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all4 ,like a procession you walk together towards your god-self4 ,illustration3 #jjfd ,you are the way and the wayfarers4 ,and when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him1 a caution against the stumbling stone4 ,ay1 and he falls for those ahead of him1 who though faster and surer of foot1 yet removed not the stumbling stone4 ,and this also1 though the word lie heavy upon your hearts3 ,the murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder1 ,and the robbed is not blameless in being robbed4 ,the righteous is not innocent of the deeds of the wicked1 ,and the white-handed is not clean in the doings of the felon4 ,yea1 the guilty is oftentimes the victim of the injured1 ,and still more often the condemned is the burden bearer for the guiltless and unblamed4 ,you cannot separate the just from the unjust and the good from the wicked2 ,for they stand together before the face of the sun even as the black thread and the white are woven together4 ,and when the black thread breaks1 the weaver shall look into the whole cloth1 and he shall examine the loom also4 9999999999 ,if any of you would bring to judgment the unfaithful wife1 ,let him also weigh the heart of her husband in scales1 and measure his soul with measurements4 ,and let him who would lash the offender look unto the spirit of the offended4 ,and if any of you would punish in the name of righteousness and lay the ax unto the evil tree1 let him see to its roots2 ,and verily he will find the roots of the good and the bad1 the fruitful and the fruitless1 all entwined together in the silent heart of the earth4 ,and you judges who would be just1 ,what judgment pronounce you upon him who though honest in the flesh yet is a thief in spirit8 ,what penalty lay you upon him who slays in the flesh yet is himself slain in the spirit8 ,and how prosecute you him who in action is a deceiver and an oppressor1 ,yet who also is aggrieved and outraged8 9999999999 ,and how shall you punish those whose remorse is already greater than their misdeeds8 ,is not remorse the justice which is administered by that very law which you would fain serve8 ,yet you cannot lay remorse upon the innocent nor lift it from the heart of the guilty4 ,unbidden shall it call in the night1 that men may wake and gaze upon themselves4 ,and you who would understand justice1 how shall you unless you look upon all deeds in the fullness of light8 ,only then shall you know that the erect and the fallen are but one man standing in twilight between the night of his pigmy-self and the day of his god-self1 ,and that the corner-stone of the temple is not higher than the lowest stone in its foundation4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then a lawyer said1 ,but what of our ,laws1 master8 ,and he answered3 ,you delight in laying down laws1 ,yet you delight more in breaking them4 ,like children playing by the ocean who build sand-towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter4 ,but while you build your sand-towers the ocean brings more sand to the shore1 ,and when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you4 ,verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent4 ,but what of those to whom life is not an ocean1 and man-made laws are not sand-towers1 ,but to whom life is a rock1 and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness8 ,what of the cripple who hates dancers8 ,what of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things8 ,what of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin1 and calls all others naked and shameless8 ,and of him who comes early to the wedding-feast1 and when over-fed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all feasters lawbreakers8 9999999999 ,what shall ,i say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight1 but with their backs to the sun8 ,they see only their shadows1 and their shadows are their laws4 ,and what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows8 ,and what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth8 ,but you who walk facing the sun1 what images drawn on the earth can hold you8 ,you who travel with the wind1 what weather-vane shall direct your course8 ,what man's law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door8 ,what laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains8 ,and who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path8 9999999999 ,people of ,orphalese1 you can muffle the drum1 and you can loosen the strings of the lyre1 but who shall command the skylark not to sing8 9999999999 9999999999 ,and an orator said1 ,speak to us of ,freedom4 ,and he answered3 ,at the city gate and by your fireside ,i have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom1 ,even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them4 ,ay1 in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel ,i have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff4 ,and my heart bled within me2 for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you1 and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfilment4 ,you shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief1 ,but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound4 9999999999 ,and how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour8 ,in truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains1 though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes4 ,and what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free8 ,if it is an unjust law you would abolish1 that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead4 ,you cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges1 though you pour the sea upon them4 ,and if it is a despot you would dethrone1 see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed4 ,for how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud1 but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their own pride8 ,and if it is a care you would cast off1 that cart has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you4 ,and if it is a fear you would dispel1 the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared4 9999999999 ,verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace1 the desired and the dreaded1 the repugnant and the cherished1 the pursued and that which you would escape4 ,these things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling4 ,and when the shadow fades and is no more1 the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light4 ,and thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and the priestess spoke again and said3 ,speak to us of ,reason and ,passion4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,your soul is oftentimes a battlefield1 upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite4 ,would that ,i could be the peacemaker in your soul1 that ,i might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody4 ,but how shall ,i1 unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers1 nay1 the lovers of all your elements8 ,your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul4 ,if either your sails or your rudder be broken1 you can but toss and drift1 or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas4 ,for reason1 ruling alone1 is a force confining2 and passion1 unattended1 is a flame that burns to its own destruction4 ,therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion1 that it may sing2 ,and let it direct your passion with reason1 that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection1 and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes4 9999999999 ,i would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house4 ,surely you would not honour one guest above the other2 for he who is more mindful of one loses the love and the faith of both ,among the hills1 when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars1 sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence1 8,god rests in reason40 ,and when the storm comes1 and the mighty wind shakes the forest1 and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky1--then let your heart say in awe1 8,god moves in passion40 ,and since you are a breath in ,god's sphere1 and a leaf in ,god's forest1 you too should rest in reason and move in passion4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and a woman spoke1 saying1 ,tell us of ,pain4 ,and he said3 ,your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding4 ,even as the stone of the fruit must break1 that its heart may stand in the sun1 so must you know pain4 ,and could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life1 your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy2 ,and you would accept the seasons of your heart1 even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields4 ,and you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief4 ,much of your pain is self-chosen4 ,it is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self4 ,therefore trust the physician1 and drink his remedy in silence and tranquillity3 ,for his hand1 though heavy and hard1 is guided by the tender hand of the ,unseen1 ,and the cup he brings1 though it burn your lips1 has been fashioned of the clay which the ,potter has moistened with ,his own sacred tears4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and a man said1 ,speak to us of ,self-,knowledge4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights4 ,but your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge4 ,you would know in words that which you have always known in thought4 ,you would touch with your fingers the naked body of your dreams4 ,and it is well you should4 ,the hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea2 ,and the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes4 ,but let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure2 ,and seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line4 ,for self is a sea boundless and measureless4 9999999999 ,say not1 8,i have found the truth10 but rather1 8,i have found a truth40 ,say not1 8,i have found the path of the soul40 ,say rather1 8,i have met the soul walking upon my path40 ,for the soul walks upon all paths4 ,the soul walks not upon a line1 neither does it grow like a reed4 ,the soul unfolds itself1 like a lotus of countless petals4 ,illustration3 #jjhc 9999999999 9999999999 ,then said a teacher1 ,speak to us of ,teaching4 ,and he said3 8,no man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge4 ,the teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple1 among his followers1 gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness4 ,if he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom1 but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind4 ,the astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space1 but he cannot give you his understanding4 ,the musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space1 but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it4 ,and he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure1 but he cannot conduct you thither4 ,for the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man4 ,and even as each one of you stands alone in ,god's knowledge1 so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of ,god and in his understanding of the earth4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and a youth said1 ,speak to us of ,friendship4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,your friend is your needs answered4 ,he is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving4 ,and he is your board and your fireside4 ,for you come to him with your hunger1 and you seek him for peace4 ,when your friend speaks his mind you fear not the 8nay0 in your own mind1 nor do you withhold the 8ay40 ,and when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart2 ,for without words1 in friendship1 all thoughts1 all desires1 all expectations are born and shared1 with joy that is unacclaimed4 ,when you part from your friend1 you grieve not2 ,for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence1 as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain4 ,and let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit4 ,for love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth3 and only the unprofitable is caught4 9999999999 ,and let your best be for your friend4 ,if he must know the ebb of your tide1 let him know its flood also4 ,for what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill8 ,seek him always with hours to live4 ,for it is his to fill your need1 but not your emptiness4 ,and in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter1 and sharing of pleasures4 ,for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and then a scholar said1 ,speak of ,talking4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,you talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts2 ,and when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips1 and sound is a diversion and a pastime4 ,and in much of your talking1 thinking is half murdered4 ,for thought is a bird of space1 that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly4 ,there are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone4 ,the silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape4 ,and there are those who talk1 and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand4 ,and there are those who have the truth within them1 but they tell it not in words4 ,in the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence4 9999999999 ,when you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place1 let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue4 ,let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear2 ,for his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered ,when the colour is forgotten and the vessel is no more4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and an astronomer said1 ,master1 what of ,time8 ,and he answered3 ,you would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable4 ,you would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons4 ,of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing4 ,yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness1 ,and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream4 ,and that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space4 ,who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless8 ,and yet who does not feel that very love1 though boundless1 encompassed within the centre of his being1 and moving not from love thought to love thought1 nor from love deeds to other love deeds8 ,and is not time even as love is1 undivided and paceless8 9999999999 ,but if in your thought you must measure time into seasons1 let each season encircle all the other seasons1 ,and let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and one of the elders of the city said1 ,speak to us of ,good and ,evil4 ,and he answered3 ,of the good in you ,i can speak1 but not of the evil4 ,for what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst8 ,verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves1 and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters4 ,you are good when you are one with yourself4 ,yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil4 ,for a divided house is not a den of thieves2 it is only a divided house4 ,and a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom4 ,you are good when you strive to give of yourself4 ,yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself4 ,for when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast4 ,surely the fruit cannot say to the root1 8,be like me1 ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance40 ,for to the fruit giving is a need1 as receiving is a need to the root4 9999999999 ,you are good when you are fully awake in your speech1 ,yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose4 ,and even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue4 ,you are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps4 ,yet you are not evil when you go thither limping4 ,even those who limp go not backward4 ,but you who are strong and swift1 see that you do not limp before the lame1 deeming it kindness4 9999999999 ,you are good in countless ways1 and you are not evil when you are not good1 ,you are only loitering and sluggard4 ,pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles4 ,in your longing for your giant self lies your goodness3 and that longing is in all of you4 ,but in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea1 carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest4 ,and in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore4 ,but let not him who longs much say to him who longs little1 8,wherefore are you slow and halting80 ,for the truly good ask not the naked1 8,where is your garment80 nor the houseless1 8,what has befallen your house80 9999999999 9999999999 ,then a priestess said1 ,speak to us of ,prayer4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,you pray in your distress and in your need2 would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance4 ,for what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether8 ,and if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space1 it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart4 ,and if you cannot but weep when your soul summons you to prayer1 she should spur you again and yet again1 though weeping1 until you shall come laughing4 ,when you pray you rise to meet in the air those who are praying at that very hour1 and whom save in prayer you may not meet4 ,therefore let your visit to that temple invisible be for naught but ecstasy and sweet communion4 ,for if you should enter the temple for no other purpose than asking you shall not receive3 ,and if you should enter into it to humble yourself you shall not be lifted3 ,or even if you should enter into it to beg for the good of others you shall not be heard4 ,it is enough that you enter the temple invisible4 9999999999 ,i cannot teach you how to pray in words4 ,god listens not to your words save when ,he ,himself utters them through your lips4 ,and ,i cannot teach you the prayer of the seas and the forests and the mountains4 ,but you who are born of the mountains and the forests and the seas can find their prayer in your heart1 ,and if you but listen in the stillness of the night you shall hear them saying in silence1 8,our ,god1 who art our winged self1 it is thy will in us that willeth4 ,it is thy desire in us that desireth4 ,it is thy urge in us that would turn our nights1 which are thine1 into days which are thine also4 ,we cannot ask thee for aught1 for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us3 ,thou art our need2 and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all40 ,illustration3 #jajj 9999999999 9999999999 ,then a hermit1 who visited the city once a year1 came forth and said1 ,speak to us of ,pleasure4 ,and he answered1 saying3 ,pleasure is a freedom-song1 ,but it is not freedom4 ,it is the blossoming of your desires1 ,but it is not their fruit4 ,it is a depth calling unto a height1 ,but it is not the deep nor the high4 ,it is the caged taking wing1 ,but it is not space encompassed4 ,ay1 in very truth1 pleasure is a freedom-song4 ,and ,i fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart2 yet ,i would not have you lose your hearts in the singing4 ,some of your youth seek pleasure as if it were all1 and they are judged and rebuked4 ,i would not judge nor rebuke them4 ,i would have them seek4 ,for they shall find pleasure1 but not her alone2 ,seven are her sisters1 and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure4 ,have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure8 9999999999 ,and some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness4 ,but regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement4 ,they should remember their pleasures with gratitude1 as they would the harvest of a summer4 ,yet if it comforts them to regret1 let them be comforted4 ,and there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember2 ,and in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures1 lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it4 ,but even in their foregoing is their pleasure4 ,and thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands4 ,but tell me1 who is he that can offend the spirit8 ,shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night1 or the firefly the stars8 ,and shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind8 ,think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff8 9999999999 ,oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being4 ,who knows but that which seems omitted today1 waits for tomorrow8 ,even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived4 ,and your body is the harp of your soul1 ,and it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds4 9999999999 ,and now you ask in your heart1 8,how shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good80 ,go to your fields and your gardens1 and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower1 ,but it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee4 ,for to the bee a flower is a fountain of life1 ,and to the flower a bee is a messenger of love1 ,and to both1 bee and flower1 the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy4 ,people of ,orphalese1 be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and a poet said1 ,speak to us of ,beauty4 ,and he answered3 ,where shall you seek beauty1 and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide8 ,and how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech8 ,the aggrieved and the injured say1 8,beauty is kind and gentle4 ,like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us40 ,and the passionate say1 8,nay1 beauty is a thing of might and dread4 ,like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us40 ,the tired and the weary say1 8,beauty is of soft whisperings4 ,she speaks in our spirit4 ,her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow40 ,but the restless say1 8,we have heard her shouting among the mountains1 ,and with her cries came the sound of hoofs1 and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions40 ,at night the watchmen of the city say1 8,beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east40 ,and at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say1 8,we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset40 9999999999 ,in winter say the snow-bound1 8,she shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills40 ,and in the summer heat the reapers say1 8,we have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves1 and we saw a drift of snow in her hair40 ,all these things have you said of beauty1 ,yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied1 ,and beauty is not a need but an ecstasy4 ,it is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth1 ,but rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted4 ,it is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear1 ,but rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears4 ,it is not the sap within the furrowed bark1 nor a wing attached to a claw1 ,but rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight4 9999999999 ,people of ,orphalese1 beauty is life when life unveils her holy face4 ,but you are life and you are the veil4 ,beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror4 ,but you are eternity and you are the mirror4 9999999999 9999999999 ,and an old priest said1 ,speak to us of ,religion4 ,and he said3 ,have ,i spoken this day of aught else8 ,is not religion all deeds and all reflection1 ,and that which is neither deed nor reflection1 but a wonder and a surprise ever springing in the soul1 even while the hands hew the stone or tend the loom8 ,who can separate his faith from his actions1 or his belief from his occupations8 ,who can spread his hours before him1 saying1 8,this for ,god and this for myself2 ,this for my soul1 and this other for my body80 ,all your hours are wings that beat through space from self to self4 ,he who wears his morality but as his best garment were better naked4 ,the wind and the sun will tear no holes in his skin4 ,and he who defines his conduct by ethics imprisons his song-bird in a cage4 ,the freest song comes not through bars and wires4 ,and he to whom worshipping is a window1 to open but also to shut1 has not yet visited the house of his soul whose windows are from dawn to dawn4 9999999999 ,your daily life is your temple and your religion4 ,whenever you enter into it take with you your all4 ,take the plough and the forge and the mallet and the lute1 ,the things you have fashioned in necessity or for delight4 ,for in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures4 ,and take with you all men3 ,for in adoration you cannot fly higher than their hopes nor humble yourself lower than their despair4 9999999999 ,and if you would know ,god be not therefore a solver of riddles4 ,rather look about you and you shall see ,him playing with your children4 ,and look into space2 you shall see ,him walking in the cloud1 outstretching ,his arms in the lightning and descending in rain4 ,you shall see ,him smiling in flowers1 then rising and waving ,his hands in trees4 9999999999 9999999999 ,then ,almitra spoke1 saying1 ,we would ask now of ,death4 ,and he said3 ,you would know the secret of death4 ,but how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life8 ,the owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light4 ,if you would indeed behold the spirit of death1 open your heart wide unto the body of life4 ,for life and death are one1 even as the river and the sea are one4 ,in the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond2 ,and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring4 ,trust the dreams1 for in them is hidden the gate to eternity4 ,your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour4 ,is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling1 that he shall wear the mark of the king8 ,yet is he not more mindful of his trembling8 9999999999 ,for what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun8 ,and what is it to cease breathing1 but to free the breath from its restless tides1 that it may rise and expand and seek ,god unencumbered8 ,only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing4 ,and when you have reached the mountain top1 then you shall begin to climb4 ,and when the earth shall claim your limbs1 then shall you truly dance4 ,and now it was evening4 ,and ,almitra the seeress said1 ,blessed be this day and this place and your spirit that has spoken4 ,and he answered1 ,was it ,i who spoke8 ,was ,i not also a listener8 9999999999 ,then he descended the steps of the ,temple and all the people followed him4 ,and he reached his ship and stood upon the deck4 ,and facing the people again1 he raised his voice and said3 ,people of ,orphalese1 the wind bids me leave you4 ,less hasty am ,i than the wind1 yet ,i must go4 ,we wanderers1 ever seeking the lonelier way1 begin no day where we have ended another day2 and no sunrise finds us where sunset left us4 ,even while the earth sleeps we travel4 ,we are the seeds of the tenacious plant1 and it is in our ripeness and our fullness of heart that we are given to the wind and are scattered4 9999999999 ,brief were my days among you1 and briefer still the words ,i have spoken4 ,but should my voice fade in your ears1 and my love vanish in your memory1 then ,i will come again1 ,and with a richer heart and lips more yielding to the spirit will ,i speak4 ,yea1 ,i shall return with the tide1 ,and though death may hide me1 and the greater silence enfold me1 yet again will ,i seek your understanding4 ,and not in vain will ,i seek4 ,if aught ,i have said is truth1 that truth shall reveal itself in a clearer voice1 and in words more kin to your thoughts4 ,i go with the wind1 people of ,orphalese1 but not down into emptiness2 ,and if this day is not a fulfilment of your needs and my love1 then let it be a promise till another day4 ,man's needs change1 but not his love1 nor his desire that his love should satisfy his needs4 ,know therefore1 that from the greater silence ,i shall return4 ,the mist that drifts away at dawn1 leaving but dew in the fields1 shall rise and gather into a cloud and then fall down in rain4 ,and not unlike the mist have ,i been4 ,in the stillness of the night ,i have walked in your streets1 and my spirit has entered your houses1 ,and your heart-beats were in my heart1 and your breath was upon my face1 and ,i knew you all4 ,ay1 ,i knew your joy and your pain1 and in your sleep your dreams were my dreams4 ,and oftentimes ,i was among you a lake among the mountains4 ,i mirrored the summits in you and the bending slopes1 and even the passing flocks of your thoughts and your desires4 ,and to my silence came the laughter of your children in streams1 and the longing of your youths in rivers4 ,and when they reached my depth the streams and the rivers ceased not yet to sing4 ,illustration3 #jaai ,but sweeter still than laughter and greater than longing came to me4 ,it was the boundless in you2 ,the vast man in whom you are all but cells and sinews2 ,he in whose chant all your singing is but a soundless throbbing4 ,it is in the vast man that you are vast1 ,and in beholding him that ,i beheld you and loved you4 ,for what distances can love reach that are not in that vast sphere8 ,what visions1 what expectations and what presumptions can outsoar that flight8 ,like a giant oak tree covered with apple blossoms is the vast man in you4 ,his might binds you to the earth1 his fragrance lifts you into space1 and in his durability you are deathless4 9999999999 ,you have been told that1 even like a chain1 you are as weak as your weakest link4 ,this is but half the truth4 ,you are also as strong as your strongest link4 ,to measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam4 ,to judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy4 ,ay1 you are like an ocean1 ,and though heavy-grounded ships await the tide upon your shores1 yet1 even like an ocean1 you cannot hasten your tides4 ,and like the seasons you are also1 ,and though in your winter you deny your spring1 ,yet spring1 reposing within you1 smiles in her drowsiness and is not offended4 ,think not ,i say these things in order that you may say the one to the other1 8,he praised us well4 ,he saw but the good in us40 ,i only speak to you in words of that which you yourselves know in thought4 ,and what is word knowledge but a shadow of wordless knowledge8 ,your thoughts and my words are waves from a sealed memory that keeps records of our yesterdays1 ,and of the ancient days when the earth knew not us nor herself1 ,and of nights when earth was up-wrought with confusion4 9999999999 ,wise men have come to you to give you of their wisdom4 ,i came to take of your wisdom3 ,and behold ,i have found that which is greater than wisdom4 ,it is a flame spirit in you ever gathering more of itself1 ,while you1 heedless of its expansion1 bewail the withering of your days4 ,it is life in quest of life in bodies that fear the grave4 9999999999 ,there are no graves here4 ,these mountains and plains are a cradle and a stepping-stone4 ,whenever you pass by the field where you have laid your ancestors look well thereupon1 and you shall see yourselves and your children dancing hand in hand4 ,verily you often make merry without knowing4 ,others have come to you to whom for golden promises made unto your faith you have given but riches and power and glory4 ,less than a promise have ,i given1 and yet more generous have you been to me4 ,you have given me my deeper thirsting after life4 ,surely there is no greater gift to a man than that which turns all his aims into parching lips and all life into a fountain4 ,illustration3 #jabe ,and in this lies my honour and my reward1-- ,that whenever ,i come to the fountain to drink ,i find the living water itself thirsty2 ,and it drinks me while ,i drink it4 9999999999 ,some of you have deemed me proud and over-shy to receive gifts4 ,too proud indeed am ,i to receive wages1 but not gifts4 ,and though ,i have eaten berries among the hills when you would have had me sit at your board1 ,and slept in the portico of the temple when you would gladly have sheltered me1 ,yet was it not your loving mindfulness of my days and my nights that made food sweet to my mouth and girdled my sleep with visions8 ,for this ,i bless you most3 ,you give much and know not that you give at all4 ,verily the kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone1 ,and a good deed that calls itself by tender names becomes the parent to a curse4 9999999999 ,and some of you have called me aloof1 and drunk with my own aloneness1 ,and you have said1 8,he holds council with the trees of the forest1 but not with men4 ,he sits alone on hill-tops and looks down upon our city40 ,true it is that ,i have climbed the hills and walked in remote places4 ,how could ,i have seen you save from a great height or a great distance8 ,how can one be indeed near unless he be far8 ,and others among you called unto me1 not in words1 and they said1 8,stranger1 stranger1 lover of unreachable heights1 why dwell you among the summits where eagles build their nests8 ,why seek you the unattainable8 ,what storms would you trap in your net1 ,and what vaporous birds do you hunt in the sky8 ,come and be one of us4 ,descend and appease your hunger with our bread and quench your thirst with our wine40 ,in the solitude of their souls they said these things2 ,but were their solitude deeper they would have known that ,i sought but the secret of your joy and your pain1 ,and ,i hunted only your larger selves that walk the sky4 9999999999 ,but the hunter was also the hunted2 ,for many of my arrows left my bow only to seek my own breast4 ,and the flier was also the creeper2 ,for when my wings were spread in the sun their shadow upon the earth was a turtle4 ,and ,i the believer was also the doubter2 ,for often have ,i put my finger in my own wound that ,i might have the greater belief in you and the greater knowledge of you4 9999999999 ,and it is with this belief and this knowledge that ,i say1 ,you are not enclosed within your bodies1 nor confined to houses or fields4 ,that which is you dwells above the mountain and roves with the wind4 ,it is not a thing that crawls into the sun for warmth or digs holes into darkness for safety1 ,but a thing free1 a spirit that envelops the earth and moves in the ether4 ,if these be vague words1 then seek not to clear them4 ,vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things1 but not their end1 ,and ,i fain would have you remember me as a beginning4 ,life1 and all that lives1 is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal4 ,and who knows but a crystal is mist in decay8 9999999999 ,this would ,i have you remember in remembering me3 ,that which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined4 ,is it not your breath that has erected and hardened the structure of your bones8 ,and is it not a dream which none of you remember having dreamt1 that builded your city and fashioned all there is in it8 ,could you but see the tides of that breath you would cease to see all else1 ,and if you could hear the whispering of the dream you would hear no other sound4 ,but you do not see1 nor do you hear1 and it is well4 ,the veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it1 ,and the clay that fills your ears shall be pierced by those fingers that kneaded it4 ,and you shall see4 ,and you shall hear4 ,yet you shall not deplore having known blindness1 nor regret having been deaf4 ,for in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things1 ,and you shall bless darkness as you would bless light4 ,after saying these things he looked about him1 and he saw the pilot of his ship standing by the helm and gazing now at the full sails and now at the distance4 ,and he said3 ,patient1 over patient1 is the captain of my ship4 ,the wind blows1 and restless are the sails2 ,even the rudder begs direction2 ,yet quietly my captain awaits my silence4 ,and these my mariners1 who have heard the choir of the greater sea1 they too have heard me patiently4 ,now they shall wait no longer4 ,i am ready4 ,the stream has reached the sea1 and once more the great mother holds her son against her breast4 9999999999 ,fare you well1 people of ,orphalese4 ,this day has ended4 ,it is closing upon us even as the water-lily upon its own tomorrow4 ,what was given us here we shall keep1 ,and if it suffices not1 then again must we come together and together stretch our hands unto the giver4 ,forget not that ,i shall come back to you4 ,a little while1 and my longing shall gather dust and foam for another body4 ,a little while1 a moment of rest upon the wind1 and another woman shall bear me4 ,farewell to you and the youth ,i have spent with you4 ,it was but yesterday we met in a dream4 ,you have sung to me in my aloneness1 and ,i of your longings have built a tower in the sky4 ,but now our sleep has fled and our dream is over1 and it is no longer dawn4 ,the noontide is upon us and our half waking has turned to fuller day1 and we must part4 ,if in the twilight of memory we should meet once more1 we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song4 ,and if our hands should meet in another dream we shall build another tower in the sky4 9999999999 ,so saying he made a signal to the seamen1 and straightway they weighed anchor and cast the ship loose from its moorings1 and they moved eastward4 ,and a cry came from the people as from a single heart1 and it rose into the dusk and was carried out over the sea like a great trumpeting4 ,only ,almitra was silent1 gazing after the ship until it had vanished into the mist4 ,and when all the people were dispersed she still stood alone upon the sea-wall1 remembering in her heart his saying1 8,a little while1 a moment of rest upon the wind1 and another woman shall bear me40 ,illustration3 #jacd