70.  In the soul that is noble altruism must, without doubt, be always the centre of gravity; but the weak soul is apt to lose itself in others, whereas it is in others that the strong soul discovers itself.  Here we have the essential distinction.  There is a thing that is loftier still than to love our neighbour as we love ourselves; it is to love ourselves in our neighbour.  Some souls there are whom goodness walks before, as there are others that goodness follows.  Let us never forget that, in communion of soul, the most generous by no means are they who believe they are constantly giving.  A strenuous soul never ceases to take, though it be from the poorest; a weak soul always is giving, even to those that have most; but there is a manner of giving which truly is only the gesture of powerless greed; and we should find, it may be, if reckoning were kept by a God, that in taking from others we give, and in giving we take away.  Often indeed will it so come about that the very first ray of enlightenment will descend on the commonplace soul the day it has met with another which took all that it had to give.

71.  Why not admit that it is not our paramount duty to weep with all those who are weeping, to suffer with all who are sad, to expose our heart to the passer-by for him to caress or stab?  Tears and suffering and wounds are helpful to us only when they do not discourage our life.  Let us never forget that whatever our mission may be in this world, whatever the aim of our efforts and hopes, and the result of our joys and our sorrows, we are, above all, the blind custodians of life.  Absolutely, wholly certain is that one thing only; it is there that we find the only fixed point of human morality.  Life has been given us—­for a reason we know not—­but surely not for us to enfeeble it, or carelessly fling it away.  For it is a particular form of life that we represent on this planet—­ the life of feeling and thought; whence it follows perhaps that all that inclines to weaken the ardour of feeling and thought is, in its essence, immoral.  Our task let it be then to foster this ardour, to enhance and embellish it; let us constantly strive to acquire deeper faith in the greatness of man, in his strength and his destiny; or, we might equally say, in his bitterness, weakness, and wretchedness; for to be loftily wretched is no less soul-quickening than it is to be loftily happy.  After all, it matters but little whether it be man or the universe that we admire, so long as something appear truly admirable to us, and exalt our sense of the infinite.  Every new star that is found in the sky will lend of its rays to the passions, and thoughts, and the courage, of man.  Whatever of beauty we see in all that surrounds us, within us already is beautiful; whatever we find in ourselves that is great and adorable, that do we find too in others.  If my soul, on awaking this morning, was cheered, as it dwelt on its love, by a thought that drew near to a God—­a God,