52 
A NEW ENTERPRISE. 
Thus, then, observe the rough quarry, bristling 
„with the debris of ages, which grows green, once more 
reproduces, and attires itself in a garb of such foliage as 
it never knew before man applied the iron to it. “ A 
wild winter vegetation I Black firs! Melancholy birch- 
trees!” But with all the gloominess mingles the white 
hawthorn blossom. 
What I have so eagerly craved, and yearned for, 
in my long years of silence, when I was as an arid 
block and a man of stone, was the fluid nature of the 
sap and its capacity of expansion. My tardy youth 
longed to dilate my lingering soul. Yesterday, I gave 
to the world “ The Bird,” an impulse of the heart 
towards light. To-day, the same force compels me, on 
the other hand, to descend below the earth, and em¬ 
bark along with you on the great living sea of meta¬ 
morphoses. A world of mysteries and gloom, it is 
true; but where, nevertheless, the most penetrating 
light is thrown on the two cherished treasures of the 
soul—Immortality and Love. 
