SELF-SACRIFICE, after all, is a wrong and mistaken
idea.
It cannot be
anything but wrong to sacrifice
good, healthy, natural feelings, instincts,
passions or desires,
just as it cannot be anything but wrong to cut the
throats
of doves for
Venus, or steers for Hermes,
if it is merely Venus or Hermes you are thinking
of.
Venus would
rather have live doves than dead, if you want to
make an offering.
If you want to make her an
offering, let the doves fly from
her altar.
But what we may sacrifice, if we call it
sacrifice, from the self,
are all the obstructions to life,
self-importance, self-conceit,
egoistic self-will,
or all the ugly old possessions that make up the
impediments
of
life,
ugly old
furniture, ugly old books, ugly old buildings, ugly old
“ art,”
anything that belongs to us,
and is ugly and an impediment
to the free motion of life
sacrifice that to the bright
gods, and satisfy the destructive instinct.