Page:The genius - Carl Grosse tr Joseph Trapp 1796.djvu/75

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dictates of provoked desires, you plunge humanity, unable to govern herself, into the tormenting alternative, of making use of an unknown and quite foreign arbitration."

—"Ah, Carlos, little dost thou know us! Voluntarily did we retire from the lap of that felicity, which men pursue. To be useful to humanity, which did not misprise us, and loudly extolled our friendship, we renounced the fairest wish of sublime minds, immortality—to guide them in solitary remoteness. Thus occupied for a long series of years, a thousand errors which we corrected but with difficulty, the unity of our end, the zeal and number of our co-operations, all has sharpened our sight, and without pretensions to the world's joys, we there see light, where other men's eyes view nothing but darkness."

"Believe me, Carlos," continued he taking me by the hand, "thyself too, shall once with flul confidence adhere to our faith. Ah, the holy bosom of solitude, abounds with heavenly flights; and from night's most impenetrable darkness, will spring the noblest of projects."