Shall I find you conquered or conqueror?

Should tomorrow be a day of trial, shall I find you at evening conquered or conqueror? Will you have listened to harshness and injustice in silence and without anger, returning a kind answer? Will you have been patient and cheerful in sacrificing yourself to others, remembering their faults tenderly, your own seriously? Will you have kept your thoughts above littleness and your soul open to the inflowing spirit? Should you succeed in doing this, you will feel a far deeper peace than this mere rest from spiritual labour.

—Katherine B. Caine, Light on the Hidden Way, 1886, Ticknor and Company, Boston, 31-2

Aurora Borealis in Estonia | Kristian Pikner | CC BY-SA 4.0