wandering through desert plains void of all consolation; but suddenly there will be a brightness round you and you will see all things—beautiful and ugly—in a new and unexpected splendour. Then will there be no more 'importance' and 'unimportance' for you; every event will be equally 'important' and 'unimportant.' You will become 'horned' by drinking the dragon's blood, and be able to say of yourself: I fare forth into the shoreless sea of an unending life with snow-white sails." **** These were the last words Johann Hermann Obereit spoke to me. I have not seen him again.
Many years have passed since then and I have tried as well as I could to follow his doctrine; but waiting and hoping will not wane from my heart.
I am too weak, alas! to root out these weeds; and so I no longer wonder that on the countless gravestones so very seldom does one find the legend:
| V | I |
| V | O |
(Rendered from the Original.)
