Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/310

326 from one of those bad, enigmatical nervous complaints which attack the soul, still more than the body, and darken its world. The athletic soul in the athletic body rises up against it; but the Nessus-garment adheres to the frame as by the power of an evil magic; the strength of Hercules does not suffice to rend it away.

But, happier than Hercules, the Christian philosopher in this case has still hope left, and in any case the unwavering certainty of God's mercy and fatherly providence.

It was very precious to me to spend a little time with Secretan, even though in a different manner to what either he or I had thought of. More than once I heard him painfully lament that, in consequence of his suffering, he could not make my visit what he would have desired, nor yet converse with me as he should have wished.

But, noble, generous friend! If thou hast not been able to say to me what thou wouldst have said, yet hast thou said that which God willed thee to say to me. What philosophy, indeed, could have had the value for me of those words which thy candor and thy suffering called forth from the depths of thy soul? What teaching could have been more instructive than that which thou gavest me with such rare and perfect candor?

For this I thank thee more than for all besides. And yet at the same time it is so infinitely much which thou hast given me in thy beautiful and richly-spiritual works!

In these, as also in the periodical, Revue Suisse, of