but offered to those who, for many long years, have been heroes in
obscurity and silence. And whether you climb up the mountain or go
down the hill to the valley, whether you journey to the end of the
world or merely walk round your house, none but yourself shall you
meet on the highway of fate. If Judas go forth to-night, it is
towards Judas his steps will tend, nor will chance for betrayal be
lacking; but let Socrates open his door, he shall find Socrates
asleep on the threshold before him, and there will be occasion for
wisdom. Our adventures hover around us like bees round the hive when
preparing to swarm. They wait till the mother-idea has at last come
forth from our soul, and no sooner has she appeared than they all
come rushing towards her. Be false, and falsehoods will haste to
you; love, and adventures will flock to you, throbbing with love.
They seem to be all on the watch for the signal we hoist from
within: and if the soul grow wiser towards evening, the sorrow will
grow wiser too that the soul had fashioned for itself in the
morning.

11. No great inner event befalls those who summon it not; and yet is
there germ of great inner event in the smallest occurrence of life.
But events such as these are apportioned by justice, and to each man
is given of the spoil in accord with his merits. We become that
which we discover in the sorrows and joys that befall us; and the
least expected caprices of fate soon mould themselves on our
thoughts. It is in our past that destiny finds all her weapons, her
vestments, her jewels. Were the only son of Thersites and Socrates
to die the same day, Socrates' grief would in no way resemble the
grief of Thersites. Misfortune or happiness, it seems, must be
chastened ere it knock at the door of the sage; but only by stooping
low can it enter the commonplace soul.