‘Forgive me, beautiful ones, who earlier learned the harmony of your beings, — with whom eye, voice, and hand are already true to the soul! Forgive me still some “lispings and stammerings of the passionate age.” Teach me, — me, also, — to utter my pæan in its full sweetness. These long lines are radii from one centre; aid me to fill the circumference. Then each moment, each act, shall be true. The pupil has found the carbuncle,[1] but knows not yet how to use it day by day. But “though his companions wondered at the pupil, the master loved him.” He loves me, my friends. Do ye trust me. Wash the tears and black stains from the records of my life by the benignity of a true glance; make each discord harmony, by striking again the key-note; forget the imperfect interviews, burn the imperfect letters, till at last the full song bursts forth, the key-stone is given from heaven to the arch, the past is all pardoned and atoned for, and we live forever in the Now.’ * *
‘Henceforth I hope I shall not write letters thus full
of childish feeling; for in feeling I am indeed a child,
and the least of children. Soon I must return into the
Intellect, for there, in sight, at least, I am a man, and
could write the words very calmly and in steadfast
flow. But, lately, the intellect has been so subordinated
to the soul, that I am not free to enter the Basilikon,
and plead and hear till I am called. But let me not
stay too long in this Sicilian valley, gathering my
flowers, for “night cometh.”’
‘The other evening, while hearing the Creation, in
- ↑ Novalis.
