d that we are
compelled to obey.

"I take this step therefore with more emotion, I put forth more zeal
and vigour, than if it were my own life, my own happiness, that stood
in peril. She for whom I am acting is indeed 'more I than I am
myself,' and for a long time past her happiness has been the source of
mine. Of this both my heart and my reason are fully aware; but does my
unconsciousness know? My reason and heart, that form my consciousness,
are barely thirty years old; my unconscious soul, still reminiscent of
primitive secrets, may well date centuries back. Its evolution is very
deliberate. It is as slow as a world that turns in time without end.
It will probably therefore not yet have learned that a second existence
has linked itself to mine, and completely absorbs it. How many years
must elapse before the great news shall penetrate to its retreat? Here
again we note its diversity, its inequality. In one man, perhaps,
unconsciousness will immediately recognise what is taking place in his
heart; in another, it will very tardily lend itself to the phenomena of
reason. There is a love, again, such as that of the mother for her
child, in which it moves in advance of both heart and reason. Only
after a very long time does the unconscious soul of a mother separate
itself from that of her children; it watches over these at first with
far more zeal and solicitude than over the mother. But, in a love like
mine, who shall say whether my unconsciousness has gathered that this
love is more essential to me than my life? I myself believe that it is
satisfied that the step I propose to take in no way concerns me. It
will not appear; it will not intervene. At the very moment when I
shall be feverishly displaying all the energy I possess, when I shall
be striving for victory more keenly than were my salvation at stake, it
will be tending its own mysterious affairs deep down in its shadowy
dwelling. Were I seeking justice for myself, it would already be on
the alert. It would know, perhaps, that I had better do nothing
to-day. I should probably have not the slightest idea of intervention;
but it would raise some unforeseen obstacle. I should fall ill; catch
a bad cold, be prevented by some secondary event from arriving at the
unpropitious hour. Then, when I was actually in the presence of the
man who held my destiny in his hands, my vigilant friend would spread
its wings over me, its breath would inspire me, its