238 A TOUK BOUND MT GARDEN. 



be able to get a distant glance of her at the theatre. If it 

 had been a hundred leagues I might have heen more fatigued, 

 but I am certain I should have accomplished the journey all 

 the same, and have arrived in time. Whatever the obstacles 

 may be that arise between her and me, I do not always per- 

 ceive how I shall overcome them; but, what I am certain of 

 is, that they will be overcome, that we shall be united, that 

 she is mine as I am hers." 



The beans were in full blossom. 



But a truce to this cold-hearted pleasantry. No, it is 

 not a folly to be under the empire of the most beautiful — 

 the most noble feeUngs ; it is no foUy to feel oneself great, 

 strong, invincible ; it is not a folly to have a good, honest, 

 and generous heart; it is no folly to be filled with good 

 faith; it is not a folly to devote oneself for the good of 

 others ; it is not a folly to live thus put of real life. 



No, no; that cold wisdom which pronounces so severe 

 a judgment upon all it cannot do ; that wisdom which owes 

 its birth to the death of so many great, noble, and sweet 

 things ; that wisdom which only comes with infirmities, and 

 which decorates them with such fine names — which calls decay 

 of the powers of the stomach and loss of appetite sobriety ; the 

 cooling of the heart and the stagnation of the blood a return 

 to reason ; envious impotence, a disdain for futile things ; — 

 this wisdom would be the greatest, the most melancholy of 

 follies, if it were not the commencement of the death of the 

 heart and the senses. 



