fain truly live wherever I must abide, and bear with full energy on my lot, whatever it is. He, who alone knoweth, will affirm that I have tried to work wholehearted from an earnest faith, Yet my hand is often languid, and my heart is slow. I would be gone; but whither? I know not; if I cannot make this spot of ground yield the corn and roses, famine must be my lot forever and ever, surely.’
‘I remember how at a similar time of perplexity,
when there were none to counsel, hardly one to
sympathize, and when the conflicting wishes of so many
whom I loved pressed the aching heart on every side,
after months of groping and fruitless thought, the
merest trifle precipitated the whole mass; all became
clear as crystal, and I saw of what use the tedious
preparation had been, by the deep content I felt in the
result.’
‘Beethoven! Tasso! It is well to think of you!
What sufferings from baseness, from coldness! How
rare and momentary were the flashes of joy, of confidence
and tenderness, in these noblest lives! Yet
could not their genius be repressed. The Eternal
Justice lives. O, Father, teach the spirit the meaning
of sorrow, and light up the generous fires of love and
hope and faith, without which I cannot live!’
‘What signifies it that Thou dost always give me to
drink more deeply of the inner fountains? And why
do I seek a reason for these repulsions and strange
arrangements of my mortal lot, when I always gain
from them a deeper love for all men, and a deeper trust
