due to ourselves, which we should value high above all. And it
surely implies a certain timidity of conscience; whereas the
conscience of the sage should harbour neither timidity nor shame.
But by the side 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