Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/99

 "How little do even our most intimate friends know of us! There is an excitement about intense misery which is its support; light sufferings spring to the lips in words, and to the eyes in tears, but there is a pride in deep passion which guards its feelings even from the shadow of a surmise. It is somewhat that speaks of mental command, to think how little the careless and the curious deem of the agony which like a conqueror is reigning in misery and desolation within!" "The difference between past grief and past joy is this,—that if the grief recurred again to-day, we should feel it as bitterly as ever; but if the joy returned, we should no longer have the same delight in it." "Which is it most difficult to judge for,—others or ourselves? The judgment given in ignorance, or that biassed by passion,—which is best? Alas for human sagacity, and that which is to depend on it,—human conduct! Look back on all the past occurrences of our lives; who are there that on reflection would not act diametrically opposite to what they formerly acted on impulse? Experience teaches, it is true, but she never teaches in time. Each event brings its lesson, and the lesson is remembered; but the same event never occurs again." "The attention of the dying Emily was observing the hands move round the dial-plate of her watch. God of heaven! to think what every segment of that small space involves! how much of human happiness or misery,—of breath entering into our frail tenement of mortality, and making life—or departing from it, and making death—are in such brief portions of eternity! How much is there in one minute, when we reflect that that one minute extends over the world!"