as though, when the darkness comes on,
and they are eager for light, they scatter its substance abroad on the
fire of the stranger.

Let us beware lest we act as he did in the fable, who stood watch in
the lighthouse, and gave to the poor in the cabins about him the oil of
the mighty lanterns that served to illumine the sea. Every soul in its
sphere has charge of a lighthouse, for which there is more or less
need. The humblest mother who allows her whole life to be crushed, to
be saddened, absorbed, by the less important of her motherly duties, is
giving her oil to the poor; and her children will suffer, the whole of
their life, from there not having been, in the soul of their mother,
the radiance it might have acquired. The immaterial force that shines
in our heart must shine, first of all, for itself; for on this
condition alone shall it shine for the others as well; but see that you
give not away the oil of your lamp, though your lamp be never so small;
let your gift be the flame, its crown.

70. In the soul that is noble altruism must, without doubt, be always
the centre of gravity; but the weak soul is apt to lose itself in
others, whereas it is in others that the strong soul discovers itself.
Here we have the essential distinction. There is a thing that is
loftier still than to love our neighbour as we love ourselves; it is to
love ourselves in our neighbour. Some souls there are whom goodness
walks before, as there are others that goodness follows. Let us never
forget that, in communion of soul, the most generous by no means are
they who believe they are constantly giving. A strenuous soul never
ceases to take, though it be from the poorest; a weak soul always is
giving, even to those that have most; but there is a manner of giving
which truly is only the gesture of powerless greed; and we should find,
it may be, if reckoning were kept by a God, that in taking from others
we give, and in giving we take away. Often indeed will it so come about
that the very first ray of enlightenment will descend on the
commonplace soul the day it has met with another which took all that it
had to give.

71. Why not admit that it is not our paramount duty to weep with all
those who are weeping, to suffer with all who are sad, to expose our
heart to the passer-by for him to caress or stab? Tears and suffering
and wounds are helpful to us only when they do not discourage our life.
Let us never forget that whatever our mission ma