Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/351

Rh attitude. What may actual experiences lead us to? What are our opinions? In order not to lose ourselves and our reason we have to shun experiences. Thus Plato fled from actualities and wished to contemplate things only as pale creations of fancy ; he was full of feeling and knew how easily the waves of feeling would close over his reason. Ought therefore the sage to impress upon himself the following: “I will honor reality, but, at the same time, turn my back upon it, because I know and dread it?” Ought he to behave as the African tribes do in presence of their princes, whom they approach only backwards, thus showing their reverence along with their dread? —Ah, how it sickens me to obtrude my own ideas upon others! How I rejoice in any mood and secret change within myself whereby the thoughts of others carry the day over mine! But from time to time I enjoy even a greater threat: when I am allowed to give away my intellectual house and goods, like the confessor sitting in a corner and anxiously waiting for a distressed one to come and tell the misery of his thoughts, so that hand and heart may again be filled and the troubled soul eased. Not only does he not want any praise; he would like to shun gratitude as well, for it is obtrusive and does not stand in awe of solitude and silence. To live without a name or