railway stations--what keeps me
going, I sometimes ask myself; and I remember how, in his 'Masnavi I
Ma'navi' or 'Spiritual Couplets,' Jalalu 'D-Din Muhammad Rumi says that
our Desires, the swarm of gaudy Thoughts we pursue and follow, are
short-lived like summer insects, and must all be killed before long by
the winter of age.

MONOTONY

Oh, to be becalmed on a sea of glass all day; to listen all day to rain
on the roof, or wind in pine trees; to sit all day by a waterfall
reading exquisite, artificial, monotonous Persian poems about an
oasis-garden where it is always spring--where roses bloom and lovers
sigh, and nightingales lament without ceasing, and white-robed figures
sit in groups by the running water and discuss all day, and day after
day, the Meaning of Life.

DAYDREAM

In the cold and malicious society in which I live, I must never mention
the Soul, nor speak of my aspirations. If I ever once let these people
get a glimpse of the higher side of my nature, they would set on me like
a pack of wolves and tear me in pieces.

I wish I had soulful friends-refined Maiden Ladies with ideals and long
noses, who live at Hampstead or Putney, and play Chopin with passion. On
sad autumn afternoons I would go and have tea with them, and talk of the
spiritual meaning of Beethoven's late Sonatas; or discuss in the
twilight the pathos of life and the Larger Hope.

PROVIDENCE

But God sees me; He knows my beautiful nature, and how pure I keep amid
all sorts of quite horrible temptations. And that is why, as I feel in
my bones, there is a special Providence watching over me; an Angel sent
expressly from heaven to guide my footsteps from harm. For I never trip
up or fall downstairs like other people; I am not run over by cabs and
busses at street-crossings; in the worst wind my hat never blows off.

And if ever any of the great cosmic processes or powers threaten me, I
believe that God sees it: 'Stop it!' He shouts from His ineffable
Throne, 'Don't you touch my Chosen One, my Pet Lamb, my Beloved. Leave
him alone, I tell you!'

ACTION

I am no mere thinker, no mere creature of dreams and imagination. I
stamp and post letters; I buy new bootlaces and put them in my boots.
And when I set out to get my hair cut, it is with the iron face of those
men of empire and unconquerable will, those Caesars and Napoleons, whose
footsteps shake the earth.

WAITING

We met at Waterloo; a