Amidst peaceful landscape in calm forest retreats or beside lonely seashores, where the attractions of Nature are all-powerful to him and where he could gladly spend the remainder of his life in solitude, a striking phenomenon will mark itself repeatedly on memory. Again and again, faces of different people will float up and confront him. Some will be the faces of friends or people known to him but others will be the faces of strangers. All call to him to leave his solitude and give up his silence. It is not difficult to understand this occurrence. The mountain eyrie, the jungle retreat, or the forest cottage may continue to attract him powerfully, but the awakening of his fellow men into truth must eventually seem a worthier objective than his own external peace.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 5 : The Sage's Service > # 28
