LETTERS TO A YOUNG POET

will extend itself and will become a twilit dwelling which the
noise of others passes by in the distance.—And if from this turning
inwards, from this sinking into your private world, there come
verses, you will not think to ask anyone whether they are good
verses. You will not attempt, either, to interest journals in these
works : for you will see in them your own dear genuine posses-
sion, a portion and a voice of your life. A work of art is good if it
has grown out of necessity. In this manner of its origin lies its
true estimate : there is no other. Therefore, my dear Sir, I could
give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore \/
the depths whence your life wells forth; at its source you will /
find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept
it as it sounds, without enquiring too closely into every word.
Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then
take your fate upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its
greatness, without ever asking for that reward which might
come from without. For the creator must be a world for himself,
and find everything within himself, and in Nature to which he
has attached himself.

Perhaps however, after this descent into yourself and into your
aloneness, you will have to renounce your claim to become a
poet; (it is sufficient, as I have said, to feel that one could live
without writing, in order not to venture it at all.) But even then
this introversion which I beg of you has not been in vain. Your
life will at all events find thenceforward its individual paths ; and
that they may be good and rich and far reaching I wish for you
more than I can say.

What more shall I'say to you : Everything seems to me to have
its proper emphasis ; I would finally just like to advise you to
grow through your development quietly and seriously ; you can
interrupt it in no more violent manner than by looking outwards,
and expecting answer from outside to questions which perhaps
only your innermost feeling in your most silent hour can answer.

It was a joy to me to find the name of Professor Horacek in
your letter ; I retain a great admiration for that dear and learned

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