importance is generally ascribed to the triumph of spirit over body,
these pretended triumphs being most often the total defeat of life.)
Sacrifice may be a flower that virtue will pluck on its road, but it
was not to gather this flower that virtue set forth on its travels.
It is a grave, error to think that the beauty of soul is most
clearly revealed by the eager desire for sacrifice; for the soul's
fertile beauty resides in its consciousness, in the elevation and
power of its life. There are some, it is true, that awake from their
sleep at the call of sacrifice only; but these lack the strength and
the courage to seek other forms of moral existence. It is, as a
rule, far easier to sacrifice self--to give up, that is, our moral
existence to the first one who chooses to take it--than to fulfil
our spiritual destiny, to accomplish, right to the end, the task for
which we were created. It is easier far, as a rule, to die morally,
nay, even physically, for others, than to learn how best we should
live for them. There are too many beings who thus lull to sleep all
initiative, personal life, and absorb themselves wholly in the idea
that they are prepared and ready for sacrifice. The consciousness
that never succeeds in travelling beyond this idea, that is
satisfied ever to seek an occasion for giving all that which it has,
is a consciousness whose eyes are sealed, and that crouches be-
numbed at the foot of the mountain. There is beauty in the giving of
self, and indeed it is only by giving oneself that we do, at the
end, begin to possess ourselves somewhat; but if all that we some
day shall give to our brethren is the desire to give them ourselves,
then are we surely preparing a gift of most slender value. Before
giving, let us try to acquire; for this last is a duty where from we
are not relieved by the fact of our giving. Let us wait till the
hour of sacrifice sounds; till then, each man to his work. The hour
will sound at last; but let us not waste all our time in seeking it