<p><SPAN name="link54" id="link54"></SPAN>And an orator said, Speak to us of
<b><i>Freedom</i></b>.</p>
<p>And he answered:</p>
<p>At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and
worship your own freedom,</p>
<p>Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays
them.</p>
<p>Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the
freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.</p>
<p>And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of
seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of
freedom as a goal and a fulfilment.</p>
<p>You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your <SPAN name="link55" id="link55"></SPAN>nights without a want and a grief,</p>
<p>But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked
and unbound.</p>
<p class="p2">
And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains
which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon
hour?</p>
<p>In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though
its links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.</p>
<p>And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may
become free?</p>
<p>If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own
hand upon your own forehead.</p>
<p>You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of
your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.</p>
<p>And if it is a despot you would <SPAN name="link56" id="link56"></SPAN>dethrone, see
first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.</p>
<p>For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their
own freedom and a shame in their own pride?</p>
<p>And if it is a care you would cast off, that cart has been chosen by you rather
than imposed upon you.</p>
<p>And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart
and not in the hand of the feared.</p>
<p class="p2">
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired
and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which
you would escape.</p>
<p>These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.</p>
<p>And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a
shadow to another light.</p>
<p>And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a
greater freedom.</p>
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