what it is to be master of the science of vital functions. When he
regards it necessary to do anything, he does it instantly and
perfectly, and the world may take the consequences and the result. He
forthwith addresses himself to fresh comfort and new enterprises for
self-development. Beyond what is vital he refuses to go; things that
do not concern him he lets alone. He has no cares beyond his needs;
all space to him is what he can fill, all time his instant of action.
He does not know where he came from, what he is, why here, whither
bound; nor does he ask.

My heart aches helplessly for him when he shall have become a man and
have grown less wise: when he shall find it necessary to act for
himself and shall yet be troubled by what his companions may think;
when he shall no longer live within the fortress of the vital, but take
up his wandering abode with the husks and swine; when he shall no
longer let the world pass by him with heed only as there is need, but
weary himself to better the unchangeable; when space shall not be some
quiet nook of the world large enough for the cradle of his life, but
the illimitable void filled with floating spheres, out upon the myriads
of which, with his poor, puzzled, human eyes, he will pitifully gaze;
when time shall not be his instant of action, but two eternities, past
and future, along the baffling walls of which he will lead his groping
faith; and when the questioning of his stoutest years shall be: Whence
came I? And what am I? Why here for a little while? Where to be
hereafter? A swimmer is drowned by a wave originating in the moon; a
traveller is struck down by a bolt originating in a cloud; a workman is
overcome by the heat originating in the sun; and so, perhaps, the end
will come to him through his solitary struggle with the great powers of
the universe that perpetually reach him, but remain forever beyond his
reach. If I could put forth one protecting prayer that would cover all