Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life--
A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife."
If indeed this be true, if mortal life be so sad and full of suffering, no
wonder that Nirvana--the cessation of sorrow--should be welcomed even at
the sacrifice of consciousness.
But ought we not to place before ourselves a very different ideal--a
healthier, manlier, and nobler hope?
Life is not to live merely, but to live well. There are some "who live
without any design at all, and only pass in the world like straws on a
river: they do not go; they are carried," [4]--but as Homer makes Ulysses
say, "How dull it is to pause, to make an end, to rest unburnished; not to
shine in use--as though to breathe were life!"
Goethe tells us that at thirty he resolved "to work out life no longer by
halves, but in all its beauty and totality."
"Im Ganzen, Guten, Schoenen
Resolut zu leben."
Life indeed must be measured by thought and action, not by time. It
certainly may be, and ought to be, bright, interesting, and happy; and,
according to the Italian proverb, "if all cannot live on the Piazza, every
one may feel the sun.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25