We best learn the unsuspected might of a
being like this when we try the weight of that sadness which hangs
like lead upon the room, the gallery, the stairs, where once her
footstep sounded, and now is heard no more. It is not less the
energy than the grace and gentleness of this character that works
the enchantment. Books can instruct, and books can exalt and
purify; beauty of face and beauty of form will come with bright
pictures and statues, and for the government of a household hired
menials will suffice; but fondness and hate, daring hopes, lively
fears, the lust of glory and the scorn of base deeds, sweet
charity, faithfulness, pride, and, chief over all, the impetuous
will, lending might and power to feeling:- these are the rib of the
man, and from these, deep veiled in the mystery of her very
loveliness, his true companion sprang. A being thus ardent will
often go wrong in her strenuous course; will often alarm, sometimes
provoke; will now and then work mischief and even perhaps grievous
harm; but she will be our own Eve after all; the sweet-speaking
tempter whom heaven created to be the joy and the trouble of this
pleasing anxious existence; to shame us away from the hiding-places
of a slothful neutrality, and lead us abroad in the world, men
militant here on earth, enduring quiet, content with strife, and
looking for peace hereafter.
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