As we go deeper down into life we discover the secret of more and more
sorrow and helplessness. We see that many souls round us lead idle and
foolish lives, because they believe they are useless, unnoticed by all,
unloved, and convinced they have nothing within them that is worthy of
love. But to the sage the hour must come when every soul that exists
claims his glance, his approval, his love-if only because it possesses
the mysterious gift of existence. -from Wisdom and Destiny His plays and
poems sing with the beauty of life, the search for happiness, the
inevitability of death, and here, in this exquisite 1898 essay, Maurice
Maeterlinck contemplates directly the theme that consumes his other
writing: the journey toward meaning and truth. Maeterlinck's questing,
lyrical prose ushers us through his stream-of-consciousness thinking on
the paradoxes of wisdom, which allows us to be as acutely aware of the
tranquillity within reach as we are keenly cognizant of its uncerebral
nature, and the demands of moral elegance, which demands self-sacrifice
on the altar of duty. Compelling and complex, this is a classic of
personal philosophy that greatly rewards close reading and appreciation.
Belgian poet and playwright MAURICE MAETERLINCK (1862-1949) won the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. Among his most famous works are the
play The Blue Bird (1908) and his first volume of verse, Les Cherres
Chaudes (Hot House Blooms) (1899).
