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gain distinctness from the remorseless years 

 that have almost obliterated the features 

 of the age in which he lived. It is better 

 to see clearly one or two things in life than 

 to move confused and blinded in the dust 

 of an impotent activity ; it is better to hear 

 one or two notes sung in the overshadow- 

 tf IB'"! ' m g * rees * nan t spend one's years amid 

 a murmur in which nothing is distinctly 

 audible. Theocritus, shunning courts and 

 cities, sought to assuage the pain of life 

 at the heart of Nature, and did not seek 

 in vain. He gave himself calmly and sin- 

 cerely to the sweet and natural life which 

 surrounded him, and in his tranquil self- 

 surrender he gained, unsuspecting, the im- 

 mortality denied his eager and restless 

 cotemporaries. Life is so vast, so unspeak- 

 ably rich, that to have reported accurately 

 one swift glimpse, or to have preserved the 

 melody of one rarely heard note, is to 

 have mastered a part of the secret of the 

 immortals. 



Struggle and anguish have their place in 

 every genuine life, but they are the stages 

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