The sage is not eager to welcome those whose chief qualification is only an ephemeral enthusiasm. To admit the wrong class is to bring eventual disappointment to the student and eventual loss of time and energy to the teacher. Hence he must avoid contacts likely to prove unprofitable to the candidate and unsatisfactory to himself. The only way to make a success of his tuition is to choose his students, not merely to be chosen by them. Every candidate must be adequately qualified before admission to his intimate circle, and must pass through a probationary novitiate before acceptance as a regular full-fledged student. He cannot afford exaggerated optimism about human beings. Hence those who are silently enrolled as pupils must first serve a term of probation, to be weeded out if proved unfit and to be rejected if proved unreliable. The proof of their fitness will therefore come from themselves.
-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind > Chapter 6 : Teaching Masters, Discipleship > # 148
