THE TAO (2) 
233 
and religious circumstances, a knowledge of which would 
render them unintelligible . 
During my solitary wanderings among the mountainous 
wastes of Yun Nan, the spiritual atmosphere of China 
penetrated my consciousness, thanks to the absence of any 
intellectual impertinences from the organ of knowledge. The 
Tao Teh King revealed its simplicity and sublimity to my 
soul, little by little, as the conditions of my physical , no less 
than of my spiritual life, penetrated the sanctuaries of my 
spirit. The philosophy of Lao-tze communicated itself to me, 
despite the persistent efforts of my mind to compel it to 
confonn with my preconceived notions of what the text 
must mean. This process, having thus taken root in my 
innennost intuition during those tremendous months of 
wandering across Yun Nan, grew continually throughout 
succeeding years. Whenever I found myself able once more to 
withdraw myself from the dissipations and distractions which 
contact with civilization forces upon a man, no matter how 
vigorously he may struggle against their insolence, to the 
sacred solitude of the desert, whether among the sierras of 
Spain or the Sands of the Sahara, I found that the philosophy 
of Lao-tze resumed its sway upon my soul, subtler and 
stronger on each successive occasion. 
But neither Europe nor Africa can show any such 
desolation as America. The proudest , stubbornest, bitterest 
peasant 
of deserted 
Spain, the most primitive and 
superstitious Arab of the remotest oases, are a little more 
than kin and never less than kind at their worst; whereas in 
the United States, one is almost always conscious of an 
instinctive lack of sympathy and understanding with even the 
most charming and cultured people. It was therefore during 
my exile in America that the doctrines of Lao-tze developed 
most rapidly in my soul, ever forcing their way outwards 
until I felt it imperious, nay inevitable, to express them in 
tenns of conscious thought. 
No sooner had this resolve taken possession of me than I