I asked the
owner of the garden if he had no lilies there, and he quietly replied,
_No_! When I expressed my surprise, I was answered as quietly as before
that hitherto no one had missed the lily. It was thus that I came to
know what I missed and longed for. How could my inner nature have
expressed itself more beautifully in words? "Thou art seeking silent
peacefulness of heart, harmony of life, clear purity of soul, by the
symbol of this silent, pure, simple lily." That garden, in its beautiful
variety, but without a lily, appeared to me as a gay life passed through
and squandered without unity and harmony. Another day I saw many lovely
lilies blooming in the garden of a house in the country. Great was my
joy; but, alas! they were separated from me by a hedge. Later on I
solved this symbol also; and until its solution image and longing
remained stored in my memory. One thing I ought to notice--namely, that
in the place where I was vainly seeking for lilies in the garden a
little boy of three years old came up trustfully and stood by my side.
I hastened to the scene of my new duties. How variously the different
outward circumstances of my life henceforth affected me as to the life
within, now that this had won for itself once more an assured individual
form, and how my life again resumed its true and highest aspect, I must
pass over here, since to develop these considerations with all their
connections would take me too long.
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