So that a writer, in
time, begins to wonder at the perdurable life of these
impressions; begins, perhaps, to fancy that he wrongs them
when he weaves them in with fiction; and looking back on
them with ever-growing kindness, puts them at last,
substantive jewels, in a setting of their own.
*
Place them in a hospital, put them in a jail in
yellow overalls, do what you will, young Jessamy
finds young Jenny.
*
'You fret against the common law,' I said. 'You rebel
against the voice of God, which He has made so winning to
convince, so imperious to command. Hear it, and how it
speaks between us! Your hand clings to mine, your heart
leaps at my touch, the unknown elements of which we are
compounded awake and run together at a look; the clay of
the earth remembers its independent life, and yearns to
join us; we are drawn together as the stars are turned
about in space, or as the tides ebb and flow; by things
older and greater than we ourselves.'
*
'Olalla,' I said, 'the soul and the body are one, and
mostly so in love. What the body chooses, the soul loves;
where the body clings, the soul cleaves; body for body,
soul to soul, they come together at God's signal; and the
lower part (if we can call aught low) is only the footstool
and foundation of the highest.'
*
She sent me away, and yet I had but to call upon her name
and she came to me.
Pages:
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151