These people are also consumed
with desires.
ME: And what, pray, do you suppose they desire?
MYSELF: They want what they have not got; they want the
unattainable: they want chiefly the rarest and most precious of
all things--a little mystery in their lives.
"That's it!" I said aloud; "that's it! Mystery--the things of the
spirit, the things above ordinary living--is not that the
essential thing for which the world is sighing, and groaning, and
longing--consciously, or unconsciously?"
I have always believed that men in their innermost souls desire
the highest, bravest, finest things they can hear, or see, or
feel in all the world. Tell a man how he can increase his income
and he will be grateful to you and soon forget you; but show him
the highest, most mysterious things in his own soul and give him
the word which will convince him that the finest things are
really attainable, and he will love and follow you always.
I now began to look with much excitement to a visit at one of the
houses on the hill, but to my disappointment I found the next two
that I approached still closed up, for the spring was not yet far
enough advanced to attract the owners to the country. I walked
rapidly onward through the gathering twilight, but with
increasing uneasiness as to the prospects for the night, and thus
came suddenly upon the scene of an odd adventure.
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