"
'To this, all who have chosen or been chosen to a life of
thought must submit. Yet I rejoice in my heritage. Should I
venture to complain? Perhaps, if I were to reckon up the hours
of bodily pain, those passed in society with which I could
not coalesce, those of ineffectual endeavor to penetrate the
secrets of nature and of art, or, worse still, to reproduce
the beautiful in some way for myself, I should find they
far outnumbered those of delightful sensation, of full and
soothing thought, of gratified tastes and affections, and of
proud hope. Yet these last, if few, how lovely, how rich in
presage! None, who have known them, can in their worst estate
fail to hope that they may be again upborne to higher, purer
blue.'
* * * * *
'As I was steeped in the divine tenth book of the Republic,
came ----'s letter, in which he so insultingly retracts his
engagements. I finished the book obstinately, but could get
little good of it; then went to ask comfort of the descending
sun in the woods and fields. What a comment it was on the
disparity between my pursuits and my situation to receive
such a letter while reading that book! However, I will not let
life's mean perplexities blur from my eye the page of Plato;
nor, if natural tears must be dropt, murmur at a lot, which,
with all its bitterness, has given time and opportunity to
cherish an even passionate love for Truth and Beauty.
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