I oo INTRO D UC TION
always grow better as we grow older, so my life may far less conform to that beautiful model which this poet sets so constantly before our eyes than even at a much earlier period of existence. Thus, then, you may try me before my own court, and see wherein I vary from strict right ; for I am much more certain of the strength of my affec- tion for you than of the absolute safety of my guidance. I have never been accustomed to be pilot to any one, and, when I would guide myself, have not infrequently been cast upon the rocks. So, though I would fain avoid the vice of meanness, you will find me not a little, as you have described yourself to be, under the dominion of impulse and feeling. Please, therefore, love me without putting too implicit faith in my judgment. For you will surely find that fools are of no particular age, and that there is abundance of them of all ages.
But, whatever causes may lead us into aberrations, truly do I believe, and have found, that the love of poetry does of itself incline us to love all that is good. It softens every grief. It adorns philosophy, and inspires it with life and soul. It lightens every affliction except that of a wounded conscience, but lends wings even to that, by which it is enabled to soar all the higher after its fall. A pleasing thought indeed it is to me that, as we grow nearer and dearer to each other, every day the more and more may we be united together in the love of the beautiful and the true. Certain I am that sincere love does constantly lead those whom it binds more and more toward pure lives, and the image is not inappropriate by which heaven itself is likened to love.
Yet, dearest friend, I cannot forget that joy as well as sorrow is the mother of tears. Only in apathy are we independent. When we have given our hearts away, then
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