And as for him, he got engaged in talk Which have no interest for a girl like you ;) Was it not all too bad? My husband says To make him look a fool. And now good bye; O what a letter! How will you survive The reading of it? 19 LETTER III. LEONARD TO EUCHARIS. From London: Jan. 28, 18-2. THANKS for your last, more dear to me than ever. This is the answer to your searching out Of what love means, in spirit and in truth,— Nearness and openness; if ever time Should come when we are wedded, to the world, Perchance I then could find some other word Which you would then more clearly understand. Till then, if ever we should come indeed You doubt my definition? Lest you should, Let me by letter labour to explain. A labour, truly, in the scanty space Afforded by a letter, to express My meaning clearly; it will help, I think, To lay down first some postulates,—some signs (For all disputings which the world has seen To others.) We discern two separate states; Are co-existent; one invisible Which we have labelled spiritual, and one And only has existence while the first Which touched on this.) The one the dwelling place Of Infinite Principle, which men call God; Are men themselves; yet is each separate fact This moment to discuss, but certainly, And consciously, would men but hold it so, With men ; who in an image have been taught Children of God, and therefore heirs of all Which is Eternal, Infinite, and True. Men truly are so; yet they undergo, While in the visible state, a slavery, Or what would be so, to material claims; And hence come words that shadow forth degrees Of less or greater bondage,-virtue, love, Sin, faith, hope, honour, mercy, and the like; Only of these is love the constant chief, Because 'tis positive,-a thing to do, And not mere school-boy shunning of reproof;— To limit and confine Him, but to show Of bondage to some gross material thing |