Irene's Dream
himself, with the just view, the calm compassion, only not contempt, of a true and deep-felt superiority. She will not dwell for ever on the past in weak and exaggerated penitence and humility; she will go forward with all the power and wisdom her past experience has given her, to a purer air and nobler objects. This would have been a difficult lesson to work out, and possibly beyond the writer's powers; she contented herself with meditating deeply on the problem as brought in real life before her.
158
