For a long time I lay there, while the slow day passed and twilight deepened again into night. All her life passed before me—its selflessness, its courage, its joy. No creature that knew her went unblessed of her. What gifts pain brought, what power of helpfulness, what fullness of life and love!
Suddenly, there in the deep stillness, it was as if the night were drawn away like a veil; and I saw out to the very edges of the world, and back into far-off ages, and on into days that are yet to be; and everywhere was light. And the light came from countless faces; and I knew that to each one pain had come—pain of body or pain of soul—and because of the pain they had found the light. And down, under the light, looking up to it, drawn by it, stumbling forward by it, were those to whom the vision had not come. And I—was I offered such a fellowship only to run away in fear?
The veil of night fell dark again, but a song was in my heart. When daylight came I wrote it down—the song my friend had given me. It is called
THE INITIATES
Wide as the world their company,
Many the paths they tread;
Here may a toil-worn peasant be,
Yonder a crownèd head.
Famed or unknown, each one must fare
Forth on a bidden way;