I and Thou, The man who does not know this, with
his very being know this, does not know love; even
though he ascribes to it the feelings he lives through,
experiences, enjoys, and expresses. Love ranges in its
effect ft through the whole world. In the eyes of him
who takes his stand in love, and gazes out of it, men are
cut free from their entanglement in bustling activity.
Good people and evil, wise and foolish, beautiful and
ugly, become successively real to trim ; that is, set free
they step forth in their singleness, and confront him as
Thou. In a wonderful way, from time to time, ex-
clusiveness arises—and -so he can be effective, helping,
healing, educating, raising up, saving. Love is responsi-
bility of an I for a Thou. In this lies the likeness—
impossible in any feeling whatsoever—of all who love,
from the smallest to the greatest and from the blessedly
protected man, whose life is rounded in that of a loved
being, to him; who is all his life nailed to the cross of
the world, and who ventures to bring himself to the
dreadful point—to love all men.
Let the significance of the effect in the third example,
that of the creature and our contemplation of it, remain
sunk in mystery. Believe in the simple magic of life,
in service in the universe, and the meaning of that
waiting, that alertness, that " craning of the neck " in
creatures will dawn upon you. Every word would
falsify; but look! round about you beings live their life,
and to whatever point you turn you comejrpon being.
Relation is mutual. My Thou attects me, as I
affect it. We are moulded by our pupils and built
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