After a while his Guide said to him:
"Johannes, pay attention to me, for I am going to say something to you that you must bear in mind. Your true life is only now beginning, and it is difficult to live a good life. If only you could remember what I am now telling you, you would never again be unhappy. Neither life nor people would be able to make you unhappy. And yet it will not prove thus—because you will forget."
There was silence for a while, broken only by the whistling of the wind, the flapping of their garments, and their rapid breathing—for they were walking very fast.
"Train your memory, therefore; for without an exact and retentive memory nothing good is attained. And mark this well; not the small and transient must you be mindful of, but the great and the eternal."
Then there was a flash of lightning, and it seemed as if the heavens were being consumed in the white fire, while a terrific peal of thunder immediately followed, directly over their heads.
But Johannes' thoughts were dwelling attentively upon the words he had heard, and he was neither frightened nor disquieted. He raised his head, proud and glad that he was not afraid, and looked, with wide-open eyes, into the high, dark dome of the heavens.
"This is the great and the eternal, is it not?" he asked. "This I will bear in mind."
But his Guide said:
"It is not the thunder and the lightning which you must bear in mind, for they are temporal and will often recur; but that you were unafraid, and bravely held up your countenance—that you must remember, and the reason why you did so. For it will thunder and lighten at other times, and you will be afraid. But even now—at this instant—it could strike you dead. Why do you not fear now?"
"Because you are with me," said Johannes.