sage. And when his wisdom at length has revealed the profounder
joys, will it not be in all unconsciousness that he renounces those
of lesser worth?

Let us never put faith in the wisdom or gladness that is based on
contempt of a single existing thing; for contempt and renouncement,
its sickly offspring, offer asylum to none but the weak and the
aged. We have only the right to scorn a joy when such scorn is
wholly unconscious. But so long as we listen to the voice of
contempt or renouncement, so long as we suffer these to flood our
heart with bitterness, so long must the joy we discard be a joy that
we still desire.

We must beware lest there enter our soul certain parasitic virtues.
And renouncement, often, is only a parasite. Even if it do not
enfeeble our inward life, it must inevitably bring disquiet. Just as
bees cease from work at the approach of an intruder into their hive,
so will the virtues and strength of the soul into which contempt or
renouncement has entered, forsake all their tasks, and eagerly flock
round the curious guest that has come in the wake of pride; for so
long as renouncement be conscious, so long will the happiness found
therein have its origin truly in pride. And he who is bent on
renouncement had best, first of all, forswear the delights of pride,
for these are wholly vain and wholly deceptive.

55. Within reach of all, demanding neither boldness nor energy, is
this "enchantment of the disenchanted!" But what name shall we give
to the man who renounces that which brought happiness to him, and
rather would surely lose it to-day than live in fear lest fortune
haply deprive him thereof on the morrow? Is the mission of wisdom