If noble
growths are always slow, others may ripen far worthier fruit
than is permitted to my tropical heats and tornadoes. Let me
clasp the cross on my breast, as I have done a thousand times
before.'
'Let me but gather from the earth one full-grown fragrant flower;
Within my bosom let it bloom through, its one blooming hour;
Within my bosom let it die, and to its latest breath
My own shall answer, "Having lived, I shrink not now from death."
It is this niggard halfness that turns my heart to stone;
'T is the cup seen, not tasted, that makes the infant moan.
For once let me press firm my lips upon the moment's brow,
For once let me distinctly feel I am all happy now,
And bliss shall seal a blessing upon that moment's brow.'
'I was in a state of celestial happiness, which lasted a great
while. For months I was all radiant with faith, and love,
and life. I began to be myself. Night and day were equally
beautiful, and the lowest and highest equally holy. Before, it
had seemed as if the Divine only gleamed upon me; but then it
poured into and through me a tide of light.
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