CHAPTEE IV 



DABWIN 



WE still celebrate, at a distance of centuries, 

 the return of the birthday of great 

 men. In reality it is a mistake. We ought to 

 celebrate the hour when not merely life, but the 

 idea of their life^ quickened them. That is the 

 really important birth that calls for commemo- 

 ration. Luther's real birthday was when he 

 nailed his theses to the church door. Then was 

 born the Luther that belongs to the world. Over 

 the world- cradle of Columbus shines, not the 

 trivial and evanescent planet given in his horo- 

 scope, but the little red flickering star of Guana- 

 hani, the light that he saw from the shore on the 

 night before he landed on an island of the New 

 World. 



Life is a voyage of discovery to the man who 

 passes through it. He looks out with his child- 

 eyes and discovers the world — at the bottom, 

 discovers only himself. But one day a greater 

 veil is torn from before his self. Genius, the 

 greater I, stirs within him like the butterfly in 

 its narrow pupa-case. For the world at large 



102 



