He wished to show Hathawi from the beginning; the solitary child, the seer of life’s mystery, who went away into a lonely place to brood. He dwelt in the high mountains, where thelightning played and the storm-winds shook him; he disciplined his will by fasting and prayer, so that the self in him died, and he could perceive eternal things, and aspects of being that are hidden. He went into the forests and dwelt with the wild things, and learned to understand their language—not only their beauty and their power, which are plain; not only their fears and their hatreds, which are painful to discover; but also their love, which is deepest of all. He learned to know the life which is inlifeless things—in water and air and fire; the joys and sorrows of the flowers, and the venerable wisdom of gr
