of this too personal humility there exists another humility that
extends to all things, that is lofty and strong, that has fed on all
that is best in our brain and our heart and our soul. It is a humility
that defines the limit of the hopes and adventures of men; that lessens
us only to add to the grandeur of all we behold; that teaches us where
we should look for the true importance of man, which lies not in that
which he is, but in that which his eyes can take in, which he strives
to accept and to grasp. It is true that sorrow will also bring us to
the realm of this humility; but it hastens us through, branching off on
the road to a mysterious gate of hope, on whose threshold we lose many
days; whereas happiness, that after the first few hours has nothing
else left to do, will lead us in silence through path after path till
we reach the most unforeseen, inaccessible places of all. It is when
the sage knows he possesses at last all man is allowed to possess, that
he begins to perceive that it is his manner of regarding what man may
never possess, that determines the value of such things as he truly may
call his own. And therefore must we long have sunned ourselves in the
rays of happiness before we can truly conceive an independent view of
life. We must be happy, not for happiness' sake, but so that we may
learn to see distinctly that which vain expectation of happiness would
for ever hide from our gaze.
91. Economy avails us nothing in the region of the heart, for it is
there that men gather the harvest of life's very substance, it were
better that nothing were done there than that things should be done by
halves; and that which we have not dared to risk is most surely lost of
all. To limit our passions is only to limit ourselves, and we are the
losers by just so much as we hoped to gain. There are certain
fastnesses within our soul that lie buried so deep that love alone dare
venture down; and it returns laden with undreamed-of jewels, whose
lustre can only be seen as they pass from our open hand to the hand of
one we love. And indeed it would seem that so clear a light springs
from our hands as they open thus to give, that it penetrates substance
too opaque to yield to the mysterious rays just discovered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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