What one has to try to perceive is that life is designed not wholly
for discomfort, or wholly for ease, but that we are here as
learners, one and all. Sometimes the lesson comes whispering
through the leaves of the plane-tree, with the scent of violets in
the air; sometimes it comes in the words and glances of a happy
circle full of eager talk, sometimes through the pages of a wise
book, and sometimes in grim hours, when one tosses sleepless on
one's bed under the pressure of an intolerable thought--but in each
and every case we do best when we receive the lesson as willingly
and large-heartedly as we can.
Perhaps, in some of my writings, those who have read them have
thought that I have unduly emphasised the brighter, sweeter, more
tranquil side of life. I have done so deliberately, because I
believe that we should follow innocent joy as far as we can. But it
is not because I am unaware of the other side. I do not think that
any of the windings of the dark wood of which Dante speaks are
unknown to me, and there are few tracts of dreariness that I have
not trodden reluctantly.
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