WISDOM AND DESTINY

By MAURICE MAETERLINCK

Translated by ALFRED SUTRO



TO GEORGETTE LEBLANC OFFER THIS BOOK, WHEREIN HER THOUGHT BLENDS
WITH MINE



INTRODUCTION

This essay on Wisdom and Destiny was to have been a thing of some
twenty pages, the work of a fortnight; but the idea took root,
others flocked to it, and the volume has occupied M. Maeterlinck
continuously for more than two years. It has much essential kinship
with the "Treasure of the Humble," though it differs therefrom in
treatment; for whereas the earlier work might perhaps be described
as the eager speculation of a poet athirst for beauty, we have here
rather the endeavour of an earnest thinker to discover the abode of
truth. And if the result of his thought be that truth and happiness
are one, this was by no means the object wherewith he set forth.
Here he is no longer content with exquisite visions, alluring or
haunting images; he probes into the soul of man and lays bare all
his joys and his sorrows. It is as though he had forsaken the canals
he loves so well--the green, calm, motionless canals that faithfully
mirror the silent trees and moss-covered roofs--and had adventured