On Freedom

And an orator said, Speak to us ofFreedom.

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your firesideI have seen you prostrate yourself andworship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves beforea tyrant and praise him though he slaysthem.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and inthe shadow of the citadel I have seenthe freest among you wear their freedomas a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for youcan only be free when even the desireof seeking freedom becomes a harnessto you, and when you cease to speak offreedom as a goal and a fulfilment.

You shall be free indeed when yourdays are not without a care nor yournights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle yourlife and yet you rise above them nakedand unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your daysand nights unless you break thechains which you at the dawn of yourunderstanding have fastened around yournoon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom isthe strongest of these chains, thoughits links glitter in the sun and dazzleyour eyes.

And what is it but fragments of yourown self you would discard that you maybecome free?

If it is an unjust law you wouldabolish, that law was written with yourown hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your lawbooks nor by washing the foreheads ofyour judges, though you pour the seaupon them.

And if it is a despot you woulddethrone, see first that his throneerected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free andthe proud, but for a tyranny in theirown freedom and a shame in their ownpride?

And if it is a care you would cast off,that cart has been chosen by you ratherthan imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel,the seat of that fear is in your heartand not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your beingin constant half embrace, the desiredand the dreaded, the repugnant and thecherished, the pursued and that whichyou would escape.

These things move within you as lightsand shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is nomore, the light that lingers becomes ashadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses itsfetters becomes itself the fetter of agreater freedom.