said so often that we need do no more than refer to them, and
indicate them as our starting-point. Ennoblement comes to man in the
degree that his consciousness quickens, and the nobler the man has
become, the profounder must consciousness be. Admirable exchange
takes place here; and even as love is insatiable in its craving for
love, so is consciousness insatiable in its craving for growth, for
moral uplifting; and moral uplifting for ever is yearning for
consciousness.

8. But this knowledge of self is only too often regarded as
implying no more than a knowledge of our defects and our qualities,
whereas it does indeed extend infinitely further, to mysteries
vastly more helpful. To know oneself in repose suffices not, nor
does it suffice to know oneself in the past or the present. Those
within whom lies the force that I speak of know themselves in the
future too. Consciousness of self with the greatest of men implies
consciousness up to a point of their star or their destiny. They are
aware of some part of their future, because they have already become
part of this future. They have faith in themselves, for they know in
advance how events will be received in their soul. The event in
itself is pure water that flows from the pitcher of fate, and seldom
has it either savour or perfume or colour. But even as the soul may
be wherein it seeks shelter, so will the event become joyous or sad,
become tender or hateful, become deadly or quick with life. To those
round about us there happen incessant and countless adventures,
whereof every one, it would seem, contains a germ of heroism; but
the adventure passes away, and heroic deed is there none. But when
Jesus Christ met the Samaritan, met a few children, an adulterous
woman, then did humanity rise three times in succession to the level
of God.