By this unpremeditated act, Oman made possible for himself something that he had desired long and earnestly. It opened the way for him to go down among the humbler people, and cause them to reveal their souls to him, that he might give them his truths. In the next months he studied, ardently, the nature of mankind, in the hope of finding means of escape from temptation for those too weak to resist it, and of giving proper strength to those who could still struggle against themselves. But, even while he labored, a new discouragement came upon him. He succeeded only too well in probing the natures of those who sought his help. To him, whose severe and troubled life had been exempt from the complicated wrong of living, the constant discoveries made to him of selfishness, pettiness, deceit, of warped and perverted notions of right and wrong, thrown before him in all the chaotic tangle of actual existence, brought revelations that overpowered him with their barefacedness. All alone he wrestled with problems that have neither beginning nor end; where, from the first, all has been so wrong that there is no hope of setting it right. He saw almost as the Almighty must see:—the terrible falsity of each individual; and, the reason for it, the reason for the fact of existence, being withheld from him, he fainted under the burden of seemingly irreparable wrong. It was no joy to him to reflect that, compared with most men, he had lived the life of a saint. Oblivious of himself since his victory was won, he tried to take up the battle for others too ill-equipped for resistance. And thus, after all, Oman showed himself not very wise; for he had not learned that, by the first law of creation, man works out his destiny alone. But this new problem proved to be also his last turning-point. He had ceased to live for himself. Henceforth all his desire was for others. It is the last lesson:—one that men are not often trusted here to learn. CHAPTER XVI “LA-ILAHA-IL-LAL-LAHA”