’I do not love her now with passion, but I still feel towards
    her as I can to no other woman.  I thought of all this as I
    looked at Madame Recamier.’

* * * * *

    TO R.W.E.

’7th Feb., 1843.—­I saw the letter of your new friend, and liked it much; only, at this distance, one could not be sure whether it was the nucleus or the train of a comet, that lightened afar.  The daemons are not busy enough at the births of most men.  They do not give them individuality deep enough for truth to take root in.  Such shallow natures cannot resist a strong head; its influence goes right through them.  It is not stopped and fermented long enough.  But I do not understand this hint of hesitation, because you have many friends already.  We need not economize, we need not hoard these immortal treasures.  Love and thought are not diminished by diffusion.  In the widow’s cruse is oil enough to furnish light for all the world.’

* * * * *

    TO R.W.E.

’15th March, 1842.—­It is to be hoped, my best one, that the experiences of life will yet correct your vocabulary, and that you will not always answer the burst of frank affection by the use of such a word as “flattery.”

’Thou knowest, O all-seeing Truth! whether that hour is base or unworthy thee, in which the heart turns tenderly towards some beloved object, whether stirred by an apprehension of its needs, or of its present beauty, or of its great promise; when it would lay before it all the flowers of hope and love, would soothe its weariness as gently as might the sweet south, and flatter it by as fond an outbreak of pride and devotion as is seen on the sunset clouds.  Thou knowest whether these promptings, whether these longings, be not truer than intellectual scrutiny of the details of character; than cold distrust of the exaggerations even of heart.  What we hope, what we think of those we love, is true, true as the fondest dream of love and friendship that ever shone upon the childish heart.

    ’The faithful shall yet meet a full-eyed love, ready as
    profound, that never needs turn the key on its retirement, or
    arrest the stammering of an overweening trust.’

* * * * *

    TO ——­

’I wish I could write you often, to bring before you the varied world-scene you cannot so well go out to unfold for yourself.  But it was never permitted me, even where I wished it most.  But the forest leaves fall unseen, and make a soil on which shall be reared the growths and fabrics of a nobler era.  This thought rounds off each day.  Your letter was a little golden key to a whole volume of thoughts and feelings.  I cannot make the one bright drop, like champagne in ice, but must pour a full gush, if I speak at all, and not think whether the water is clear