The road which leads from the individual to the
universal cannot be the rejection of the world; it must be its
perfection, resulting from productivity of mind, or soul, or deed. He
who on principle refuses to be productive, condemns himself to
annihilation in the higher sense. I admit that he who works at his own
perfection does good work, too; but it is the inexplicable secret of all
truly creative labour--in the highest as well as in the lowest
sense--that it must ultimately affect the world and eternity. The
strongest emotions, the inner illumination of the mystic and the love of
the great erotic, have been conceived in the _heart of hearts_; and have
ultimately grown beyond their creator, from the individual to the
universal. The more intimate and powerful the creative impulse has been,
the more retarded and abundant may, perhaps, be the effect. But the
chain which links the great soul to humanity cannot be broken, the work
will make itself manifest--the work of deed, the work of the mind, the
work of love--I do not say to "the public," but to life, to the world.
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