Had he the
secret hidden in his heart all the time? If one could dream of a
nearness like that, which doubts nothing, and questions nothing,
but which teaches the soul to move in as unconscious a unison with
another soul as one's two eyes move, so that the brain cannot
distinguish between the impressions of each, would not that be
worth the loss of all that we hold most sweet? We pay a price for
our qualities; the thistle cannot become the vine, or the oak the
rose, by admiration or desire. But we need not doubt of the divine
alchemy that gives good gifts to others, and denies them to
ourselves. And thus I can gratefully own that there are indeed
these high mysteries of friendship, and I can be glad to discern
them afar off, as the dweller on the high moorland, in the wind-
swept farm, can see, far away in the woodland valley, the smoke go
up from happy cottage-chimneys, nestled in leaves, and the spire
point a hopeful finger up to heaven. Life would be a poorer thing
if we had all that we desired, and it is permitted to hope that if
we are faithful with our few things, we may be made rulers over
many things!
IV
HUMOUR
There is a pleasant story of a Cambridge undergraduate finding it
necessary to expound the four allegorical figures that crown the
parapet of Trinity Library.
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