Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/160

 152 INTK OD UC TION

am aware that there is no relationship we can assume, whether of the husband, the wife, the father, the neighbor, or even the citizen, which carries not a penalty for all the pleasure we enjoy in it, — in short, while pain is but the background on which pleasure is painted, — I perceive but one choice of alternatives : either to fly to the wilderness, there like an anchorite to rust until I rot, or to interchange the affections of life with the assumption of all the risks that attend them. When we, as you say, a dozen years ago began a relation which has yielded much enjoyment to both, we did not count the cost ; and, when death has divided us, I do not believe that the survivor would will- ingly forfeit the past for the sake of avoiding the future. It is human fate. We must acquiesce. Even the Chris- tian does not find in his Bible the promise of meeting his friends hereafter, and he believes it because Hope is of such a nature that it permits men to believe anything they are inclined to. But there is one consolation for all, which consists in doing our duty and in the consciousness of benevolence ; we can at least treat our friends in such a manner as to escape remorse when we have lost them. Even when left friendless in the world, we can take an interest in mankind, and find some enjoyment in well wishing ; for I truly believe that the love of the neighbor, so prated of and so disdained, is essential to happiness, let religions be what they will. Adding to another's enjoy- ment enhances our own, and he who limits his pleasures to himself has in the very act reduced them to the lowest degree, nor unintermingled with fear, like the cat which de- vours her bone in the corner, ever growling with alarm lest the selfishness of another shall rob her even of so transient a pleasure.

When I survey the past, the present, and the future.

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