And then I felt some one take me by the shoulder, and heard a grim voice within me say, “Come! Come!”
Oh, it will be all right, never fear! Never yet have I failed to do what I resolved to do. And thou world, thou wouldst have me thy slave; but I am no man's slave—not I!
My death-warrant is ready. I go for it to-morrow.
June 6th.
Last night I knelt by the bedside, far into the deep hours, far into the dawn. The whole drama of my life rolled out before me, I saw it all, I lived it all again; and Him in whose arms I lay—I blessed Him for the whole of it. Now that the pain is gone I see that it was beautiful, that flower of my life. Other flowers the plant might have borne; but this flower was beautiful; and each flower is for itself.
I stretch out my arms, I float upon a tide, back, back, into the rolling source of things. Weep not for me, you who may love me; I can not die, for I never was; that which I am, I was always, and shall be ever; I am He. Go out into the world, you who may love me, and say, “This flower is he, this sunset cloud is he; this wind is his breath, this song is his spirit.”