unless your wisdom be constantly changing from your childhood on to
your death. The more the word means to you, the more beauty and
depth it conveys, the wiser must you become; and each step that one
takes towards wisdom reveals to the soul ever-widening space, that
wisdom never shall traverse.

25. He who knows himself is wise; yet have we no sooner acquired
real consciousness of our being than we learn that true wisdom is a
thing that lies far deeper than consciousness. The chief gain of
increased consciousness is that it unveils an ever-loftier
unconsciousness, on whose heights do the sources lie of the purest
wisdom. The heritage of unconsciousness is for all men the same; but
it is situate partly within and partly without the confines of
normal consciousness. The bulk of mankind will rarely pass over the
border; but true lovers of wisdom press on, till they open new
routes that cross over the frontier. If I love, and my love has
procured me the fullest consciousness man may attain, then will an
unconsciousness light up this love that shall be quite other than
the one whereby commonplace love is obscured. For this second
unconsciousness hedges the animal round, whereas the first draws
close unto God; but needs must it lose all trace of the second ere
it become aware of itself. In unconsciousness we ever must dwell;
but are able to purify, day after day, the unconsciousness that
wraps us around.

26. We shall not become wise through worshipping reason alone; and
wisdom means more than perpetual triumph of reason over inferior
instincts. Such triumphs can help us but little if our reason be not
taught thereby to offer profoundest submission to another and
different instinct--that of the soul. These triumphs are precious,