Page:The Quest Volume 11 (1919-20).djvu/557

 wandering through desert plains void of all consolation; but suddenly there will be a brightness round you and you will see all things—beautiful and ugly—in a new and unexpected splendour. Then will there be no more 'importance' and 'unimportance' for you; every event will be equally 'important' and 'unimportant.' You will become 'horned' by drinking the dragon's blood, and be able to say of yourself: I fare forth into the shoreless sea of an unending life with snow-white sails."

These were the last words Johann Hermann Obereit spoke to me. I have not seen him again.

Many years have passed since then and I have tried as well as I could to follow his doctrine; but waiting and hoping will not wane from my heart.

I am too weak, alas! to root out these weeds; and so I no longer wonder that on the countless gravestones so very seldom does one find the legend:

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