All those became unnecessary, because one could pierce
instantaneously into the very essence of the soul, and manifest, without
the need of expression, the regard and affection which lay beneath the
cross-currents of emotion. But love and affection waxed and waned in
heaven as on earth; it was weakened and it was transferred. Few souls
are so serene on earth as to see with perfect equanimity a friend, whom
one loves and trusts, becoming absorbed in some new and exciting
emotion, which may not perhaps obliterate the original regard, but which
must withdraw from it for a time the energy which fed the flame of the
intermitted relation.
It was very strange to me to realise the fact that friendships and
intimacies were formed as on earth, and that they lost their freshness,
either from some lack of real congeniality or from some divergence of
development. Sometimes, I may add, our teachers were consulted by the
aggrieved, sometimes they even intervened unasked.
I will freely confess that this all immensely heightened the interests
to me of our common life. One could see two spirits drawn together by
some secret tie of emotion, and one could see some further influence
strike across and suspend it.
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