of to-day, I feel as if I had
been present at the dawning of creation; a new road, a new dwelling,
and a spot where human being had never been before. I feel as if
experience had nothing more in store for me; as if all earthly burdens
had fallen from me.
*
When, after a day of great exertion and mountain climbing, one awakes
on the following morning, the fatigue has passed away. One feels
refreshed and invigorated, and satisfied with the test to which he has
subjected himself; for it has proved his power of endurance and his
ability to impose tasks upon himself. For a while, I had left my past
and possessed nothing but myself. Now that I have returned to familiar
scenes, they welcome me again. I can easily realize the calm
peacefulness of those who thus picture to themselves the awakening to
the eternal life.
*
The shepherd's hut is empty. The walls are bare, except where the
picture of our Saviour hangs in the corner, waiting for the beings who
are to come there. It is, and ever will remain, a blessing that men can
thus bear with them, to desert wastes and lonely heights, the image of
pure and perfect man. It is this which enables a more perfect
civilization and a great history to take possession of the modern
world.
If only the pure knowledge of the pure spirit always went with it.
*
(October.)--Now that winter approaches, my thoughts are always of the
lonely shepherd's hut upon the mountain. I am always there in my
dreams, alone and undergoing strange experiences. I think I must move
up there next spring. I feel that life will be incomplete until I have
spent a whole summer with plants and beasts, with mountain and brook,
with the sun, the moon and the stars.
Art thou still dissatisfied, insatiate heart, always longing for
something else? What can it be? I must and will have rest!
*
He who needs nothing but himself to be happy, is happy indeed.
*
Here, once again, I am like the first human being that walked the
earth.
Man, of himself, is pure and unsullied, and out of him flows the world.
There lies the secret which I shall not name.
*
It makes me happy to think that I am to go still higher; further up the
mountain, where it is even quieter and more lonely than here. I feel as
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