in Thee? Wonderful are thy ways! But lead me the darkest and the coldest as Thou wilt.’
‘Please, good Genius of my life, to make me very
patient, resolute, gentle, while no less ardent; and after
having tried me well, please present, at the end of
some thousand years or so, a sphere of congenial and
consecutive labors; of heart-felt, heart-filling wishes
carried out into life on the instant; of aims obviously,
inevitably proportioned to my highest nature.
Sometime, in God’s good time, let me live as swift and
earnest as a flash of the eye. Meanwhile, let me
gather force slowly, and drift along lazily, like yonder
cloud, and be content to end in a few tears at last.’
'To-night I lay on the sofa, and saw how the flame
shot up from beneath, through the mass of coal that
had been piled above. It shot up in wild beautiful jets,
and then unexpectedly sank again, and all was black,
unsightly and forlorn. And thus, I thought, is it with
my life at present. Yet if the fire beneath persists
and conquers, that black dead mass will become all
radiant, life-giving, fit for the altar or the domestic
hearth. Yes, and it shall be so.’
‘My tendency at present is to the deepest privacy.
Where can I hide till I am given to myself? Yet I
love the others more and more. When they are with
me I must give them the best from my scrip. I see
their infirmities, and would fain heal them, forgetful
of my own! But am I left one moment alone, then, a
poor wandering pilgrim, but no saint, I would seek the
shrine, and would therein die to the world. Then if
