*

Now I understand my father's last act. He did not mean to punish me.
His only desire was to arouse me, to lead me to self-consciousness, to
the knowledge that, teaching us to become different from what we are,
saves us.

*

I understand the inscription in my father's library: "When I am alone,
then am I least alone."

Yes; when alone, one can more perfectly lose himself in the life
universal. I have lived and have come to know the truth. I can now die.

*

He who is at one with himself, possesses all.

*

What will people say?--These few words represent the world's tyranny,
the power that perverts our nature and temperaments, and account for
our mental obliquity of vision. These four words rule everywhere.
Walpurga is swayed by them, while Hansei has quite a different
standard, the only true one. Without knowing it, he acts just as
Gunther would have done.

Man's first and only duty is to preserve his peace of mind. He should
be utterly indifferent as to "what the people will say." That question
makes the mind homeless. Do right and fear naught! Rest assured that
with all your consideration for the world, you can never satisfy it.
But if you will go on in your own way, indifferent to the praise or
blame of others, you have conquered the world, and it cheerfully
subjects itself to you. As long as you care for "what the people will
say," so long are you the slave of others.

*

I believe that I know what I have done. I have no compassion for
myself. This is my full confession.

I have sinned--not against nature, but against the world's rules. Is
that sin? Look at the tall pines in yonder forest. The higher the tree
grows, the more do the lower branches die away, and thus the tree in
the thick forest is protected and sheltered by its fellows, but can,
nevertheless, not perfect itself in all directions.

I desired to lead a full and complete life and yet to be in the forest,
to be in the world and yet in society. But he who means to live thus,
must remain in solitude. As soon as we become members of society, we
cease to be mere creatures, of nature. Nature and morality have equal
rights and must form a compact with each other, and where there are two
powers with equal rights, there must be mutual concessions.

Herein lies my sin.

_He who desires to l