"
I did not even then fully apprehend the meaning of what I had said and
written, or I could not of course have held so firmly to my architecture
scheme. I knew as yet neither myself nor my real life, neither my goal
nor my life's path thither. And long afterwards, when I had for some
time been engaged upon my true vocation, I was not a little astonished
over the prophetic nature of this album-phrase of mine.
In later life I have often observed that a man's spirit, when it first
begins to stir within him, utters many a far-away prophetic thought,
which yet, in riper age, attains its realisation, its consummation.
I have especially noticed this recently in bright-minded and active
children; in fact, I have often been quite astounded at the really
deep truths expressed by them in their butterfly life. I seemed to
catch glimpses of a symbolic truth in this; as if indeed the human
soul were even already beginning to shake itself free from its
chrysalis-wrapping, or were bursting off the last fragments of the
eggshell.
In May 1805, while on my journey, I visited my eldest brother, of whom I
have so often spoken, and shall have yet so often to speak, and found
him in another district, to which he had been appointed minister.
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