The Foundation of the City 
and my friend, his astonishment over, soon 
turned his eyes away, and in them I could 
read the signs of I know not what saddened 
fear. 
And truly, underlying the gladness that 
we note first of all in the hive; underlying 
the dazzling memories of beautiful days that 
render it the store-house of summer’s most 
precious jewels; underlying the blissful 
journeys that knit it so close to the flowers 
and to running water, to the sky, to the 
peaceful abundance of all that makes for 
beauty and happiness—underlying all these 
exterior joys there reposes a sadness as deep 
as the eye of man can behold. And we, 
who dimly gaze on these things with our 
own blind eyes, we know full well that it is 
not they alone whom we are striving to see, 
not they alone whom we cannot understand, 
but that before us there lies a pitiable form 
of the great power that quickens us also. 
Sad let it be, as all things in nature are 
sad, when our eyes rest too closely upon 
them. And thus it ever shall be so long as 
we know not her secret, or even whether 
secret truly there be. And should we discover 
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