idea?), shall also go forth, and disturb from its slumber another
obscure idea, but loftier, lovelier far than it had been itself in
its sleep; and thus, it may be, treading gently, one after the
other, and never disheartened, in the midst of those silent ranks--
some day, by mere chance, a small hand, scarce visible yet, shall
touch a great truth.

33. Clear ideas and obscure ideas; heart, intellect, will, and
reason, and soul--truly these words that we use do but mean more or
less the same thing: the spiritual riches of man. The soul may well
be no more than the most beautiful desire of our brain, and God
Himself be only the most beautiful desire of our soul. So great is
the darkness here that we can but seek to divide it; and the lines
that we trace must be blacker still than the sections they traverse.
Of all the ideals that are left to us, there is perhaps only one
that we still can accept; and that one is to gain full self-
knowledge; but to how great an extent does this knowledge truly
depend on our reason--this knowledge that at first would appear to
depend on our reason alone? Surely he who at last had succeeded in
realising, to the fullest extent, the place that he filled in the
universe--surely he should be better than others, be wiser and
truer, more upright; in a word, be more moral? But can any man
claim, in good faith, to have grasped this relation; and do not the
roots of the most positive morals lie hidden beneath some kind of
mystic unconsciousness? Our most beautiful thought does no more than
pass through our intelligence; and none would imagine that the
harvest must have been reaped in the road because it is seen passing
by. When reason, however precise, sets forth to explore her domain,
every step that she takes is over the border. And yet is it the
intellect that lends the first touches of beauty to thought; the