are not intended to slay themselves for each other, but to strengthen themselves for each other.  And among the many apparently beautiful things which turn, through mistaken use, to utter evil, I am not sure but that the thoughtlessly meek and self-sacrificing spirit of good men must be named as one of the fatallest.  They have so often been taught that there is a virtue in mere suffering, as such . . . that they accept pain and defeat as if these were their appointed portion; never understanding that their defeat is not the less to be mourned because it is more fatal to their enemies than to them.”

67.  You are told you should love your neighbour as yourself; but if you love yourself meanly, childishly, timidly, even so shall you love your neighbour.  Learn therefore to love yourself with a love that is wise and healthy, that is large and complete.  This is less easy than it would seem.  There is more active charity in the egoism of a strenuous clairvoyant soul than in all the devotion of the soul that is helpless and blind.  Before you exist for others it behoves you to exist for yourself; before giving, you first must acquire.  Be sure that, if deeply considered, more value attaches to the particle of consciousness gained than to the gift of your entire unconsciousness.  Nearly all the great things of this world have been done by men who concerned themselves not at all with ideas of self-sacrifice.  Plato’s thoughts flew on—­he paused not to let his tears fall with the tears of the mourners in Athens; Newton pursued his experiments calmly, nor left them to search for objects of pity or sorrow; and Marcus Aurelius above all (for here we touch on the most frequent and dangerous form of self-sacrifice) Marcus Aurelius essayed not to dim the brightness of his own soul that he might confer happiness on the inferior soul of Faustina.  And if this was right in the lives of these men, of Plato and Newton and Marcus Aurelius, it is equally right in the life of every soul; for each soul has, in its sphere, the same obligations to self as the soul of the greatest.  We should tell ourselves, once and for all, that it is the first duty of the soul to become as happy, complete, independent, and great as lies in its power.’  Herein is no egoism, or pride.  To become effectually generous and sincerely humble there must be within us a confident, tranquil, and clear comprehension of all that we owe to ourselves.  To this end we may sacrifice even the passion for sacrifice; for sacrifice never should be the means of ennoblement, but only the sign of our being ennobled.

68.  Let us be ready to offer, when necessity beckons, our wealth, and our time, and our life, to our less fortunate brethren, making them thus an exceptional gift of a few exceptional hours; but the sage is not bound to neglect his happiness, and all that environs his life, in sole preparation for these few exceptional hours of greater or lesser devotion.  The truest morality tells us to cling, above all, to the duties