on the threshold, from lamp unto lamp. Drops of an unknown oil will
blend with the oil of the wisdom of man; and when the white
strangers have passed, the flame of her lamp shall rise higher,
transformed for all time; shall shed purer and mightier radiance
amidst the columns of the loftier doorway.

34. So much for isolated wisdom; now let us return to the wisdom
that moves to the grave in the midst of the mighty crowd of human
destinies; for the destiny of the sage holds not aloof from that of
the wicked and frivolous. All destinies are for ever commingling;
and the adventure is rare in whose web the hempen thread blends not
with the golden. There are misfortunes more gradual, less frightful
of aspect, than those that befell Oedipus and the prince of
Elsinore; misfortunes that quail not beneath the gaze of truth or
justice or love. Those who speak of the profit of wisdom are never
so wise as when they freely admit, without pride or heart-burning,
that wisdom grants scarcely a boon to her faithful that the foolish
or wicked would prize. And indeed, it may often take place that the
sage, as he moves among men, shall pass almost unnoticed, shall
affect them but slightly; be this that his stay is too brief, that
he comes too late, that he misses true contact; or perchance that he
has to contend with forces too overwhelming, amassed by myriad men
from time immemorial. No miracles can he perform on material things;
he can save only that which life's ordinary laws still allow to be
saved; and himself, it may be, shall be suddenly seized in a great
inexorable whirlwind. But, though he perish therein, still does he
escape the fate that is common to most; for at least he will die
without having been forced--for weeks, or it may be for years,
before the catastrophe--to be the helpless, despairing witness of
the ruin of his soul. And to save some one--if we admit that in