affectionate deference, if not with assent, and have exerted a purifying influence.’ * *
‘November, 1842. — When souls meet direct and all
secret thoughts are laid open, we shall need no forbearance,
no prevention, no care-taking of any kind. Love
will be pure light, and each action simple, — too simple
to be noble. But there will not be always so much
to pardon in ourselves and others. Yesterday we
had at my class a conversation on Faith. Deeply
true things were said and felt. But to-day the virtue
has gone out of me; I have accepted all, and yet there
will come these hours of weariness, — weariness of human
nature in myself and others. “Could ye not watch one
hour?” Not one faithfully through! * * To speak
with open heart and “tongue affectionate and true,” —
to enjoy real repose and the consciousness of a thorough
mutual understanding in the presence of friends when
we do meet, is what is needed. That being granted, I
do believe I should not wish any surrender of time or
thought from a human being. But I have always a
sense that I cannot meet or be met in haste; as ——
said he could not look at the works of art in a chance
half-hour, so cannot I thus rudely and hastily turn
over the leaves of any mind. In peace, in stillness
that permits the soul to flow, beneath the open sky, I
would see those I love.’
