Volume I Part 7 (1/2)

'I ords to express the singularity of all e I have felt that I was not born to the co who could keep the key of my character; that there would be none on whom I could always lean, frorim and sojourner on earth, and that the birds and foxes would be surer of a place to lay the head than I You understand s can only find their hoements of society, are ht, all whose bearings I did not, indeed, understand, affected me sometimes with sadness, sometih experience of life, never know the full riches of ; I was proud that I was to test myself in the sternest way, that I was always to return to myself, to be my own priest, pupil, parent, child, husband, and wife All this I did not understand as I do now; but this destiny of the thinker, and (shall I dare to say it?) of the poetic priestess, sibylline, dwelling in the cave, or aly, I did not look on any of the persons, brought into relation with me, with common womanly eyes

'Yet, as my character is, after all, still more feminine than masculine, it would sometimes happen that I put more emotion into a state than I h it never seemed so till the hour of separation And if a connexion was torn up by the roots, the soil ofrefused to clothe itself in verdure

'With regard to yourself, I was to you all that I wished to be I knew that I reigned in your thoughts in my oay

And I also lived with you more truly and freely than with any other person We were truly friends, but it was not friends as men are friends to one another, or as brother and sister

There was, also, that pleasure, whichoneself in an alien nature Is there any tinge of love in this? Possibly! At least, in co it with my relation to--, I find _that_ was strictly fraternal

I valued him for himself I did not care for an influence over hi to have one or fifty rivals in his heart

'I think I may say, I never loved I but see lass darkly, I have seen what I ht feel as child, wife, mother, but I have never really approached the close relations of life A sister I have truly been tonurse to, oh how many! The bridal hour of many a spirit, when first it ed, I have shared, but said adieu before the as poured out at the banquet And there is one I always love in my poetic hour, as the lily looks up to the star from amid the waters; and another whom I visit as the bee visits the flohen I crave sympathy Yet those who live would scarcely consider that I a,--and I am isolated, as you say

'My dear--, all is well; all has helped reat poem of the universe I can hardly describe to you the happiness which floods ed and iot me an oratory; where I can retire and pray With your letter, vanished a last regret You did not act or think unworthily

It is enough As to the cessation of our confidential inter course, circurief was that you should do it with your own free will, and for reasons that I thought unworthy I long to honor you, to be honored by you Noill have free and noble thoughts of one another, and all that is best of our friendshi+p shall remain'

II

CONVERSATION--SOCIAL INTERCOURSE

”Be thou what thou singly art, and personate only thyself

Swim smoothly in the stream of thy nature, and live but one man”

SIR THOMAS BROWNE

”Ah, how mournful look in letters Black on white, the words to me, Which from lips of thine cast fetters Bound the heart, or set It free”

GOETHE, _translated by JS Dwight_

”Zu erfinden, zu beschliessen, Bleibe, Kunstler, oft allein; Deines Wirkes zu geniessen Eile freudig zunes Lebenslauf, Und die Thaten mancher Jahre Gehn dir in de_

When I first knew Margaret, she was much in society, but in a circle of her own,--of friends whohted by her exuberant talent Of those belonging to this circle, let aret had attracted were very different from herself, and from each other From Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, Brookline, they came to her, and the little circle of companions would meet now in one house, and now in another, of these pleasant towns

There was A----, a dark-haired, black-eyed beauty, with clear olive coht, beauteous, and cold as a gem,--with clear perceptions of character within a narrow li society, and always surrounded with ads she seemed quite unconscious While they were just ready to die of unrequited love, she stood untouched as Artemis, scarcely aware of the deadly arrohich had flown froaret said, that Tennyson's little poe-ropehis adrace of the lady, is told--