Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/389

Rh might be misconstrued ; thus the very actions that have an intrinsic value of their own, both good and evil. The more highly, therefore, an age, a people value the individuals, and the more we concede to them both right and ascendency, the more will actions like these venture to light—and so, in the end, a lustre of honesty, of genuineness in good and evil, will spread over whole ages and nations, so that they—is the Greeks, for illstance—like some stars, continue to shed light for thousand of years after their fall. —Many in their general mode of thinking are stern and inflexible, sometimes even cruel towards themselves, whereas, individually, they are gentle and flexible; they will with well-meaning hesitation ten times revolve & matter in their minds, but ultimately they continue their strict course. They are like streams meandering past solitary hermitages; there are stations in their course where the stream plays hide and seek with itself, creating a short idyl, with islets, trees, grottoes and waterfalls; and then it rushes on, past rocks, forcing its way through the hardest stone. —From the time of our living a retired social life, consuming and consumed, in