of your friendship should not debase himself by a false modesty. Your own fair, open soul deserves that I should never seem to doubt its pure expression, and hence I promise, on my side too, perfect openness."

"Whether there can be love without esteem?' Oh yes,- thou dear, pure one! Love is of many kinds. Rousseau proves that by his reasoning, and still better by his example. La pauvre Maman' and Madame N' love in very different fashions. But I believe there are many kinds of love which do not appear in Rousseau's life. You are very right in saying that no true and enduring love can exist without cordial esteem; that every other draws regret after it, and is unworthy of any noble human soul.

"One word about pietism. Pietists place religion mostly in externals; in acts of worship performed mechanically, without aim, as bond-service to God; in orthodoxy of opinion, &c. &c.; and they have this among other characteristic marks, that they give themselves more solicitude about others' piety than their own. It is not right to hate these men,- we should hate no one, -but to me they are very contemptible, for their character implies the most deplorable emptiness of the head, and the most sorrowful perversion of the heart. Such my dear friend can never be; she cannot become such, even were it possible - which it is not - that her character were perverted; she can never become such, her nature has too much reality in it. Your trust in Providence, your anticipations of a future life, are wise and Christian. I hope, if I may venture to speak of my

self, that no one will take me to be a pietist or stiff formalist, but I know no feelings more thoroughly interwoven with my soul than these are."

"I am once more within these walls, which are only dear to me because they enclose you; and when again left to myself, to my solitude, to my own thoughts, my soul flies directly to your presence. How is this? It is but three days since I have seen you, and I must often be absent from you for a longer period than that. Distance is but distance, and I am equally separated from you in Flaach or in Zurich But how comes it that this absence has seemed to me longer than usual, that my heart longs more earnestly to be with you, that I imagine I have not seen you for a week? Have I philosophized falsely of late about distance? Oh that our feelings must still contradict the firmest conclusions of our reason! "You know doubtless that my peace has been broken by intelligence of the death of a man whom I prized and loved, whose esteem was one of the sweetest enjoyments which Zurich has afforded me, and whose friendship I would still seek to deserve; and you would weep with me if you knew how dear this man was to me. ""

"Your offer of Friday has touched me deeply; it has convinced me yet more strongly, if that were possible, of your worth. Not because you are willing, for my sake, to deprive yourself of something which may be to you a trifle, as you say it is a thousand others could do that but that, although you must have re

marked something of my way of thinking ('pride' the world calls it), you should yet have made that offer so naturally and openly, as if your whole heart had told you that I could not misunderstand you; that although I had never accepted aught from any man on earth, yet that I would accept it from you; that we were too closely united to have different opinions about such things as these. Dearest, you have given me a proof of your confidence, your kindness, your (dare I write it?) love, than which there could be no greater. Were I not now wholly yours I should be a monster, without head or heart-without any title to happiness.

"But in order to show myself to you in a just light, you have here my true thoughts and feelings upon this matter, as I read them myself in my own breast.

"At first I confess it with deep shame at first it roused my pride. Fool that I was, I thought for a not longer, that you had misunderstood what Yet even in this moment I was

moment

I wrote to you lately. more grieved than hurt the blow came from your hand. Instantly, however, my better nature awoke; I felt the whole worth of your heart, and I was deeply moved. Had not your father come at this moment, I could not have mastered my emotions: only shame for having for a moment undervalued you and myself kept them within bounds.

"Yet I cannot accept it : not that your gift would disgrace me, or could disgrace me. A gift out of mere compassion for my poverty I could abhor, and even hate the giver this is perhaps the most neglected part of my character. But the gift of friendship, of a friend

ship which, like yours, rests upon cordial esteem, cannot proceed from compassion, and is an honor instead of a dishonor. But, in truth, I need it not. I have indeed no money by me at present, but I have no unusual disbursements to make, and I shall have enough to meet my very small regular expenses till my departure. I seldom come into difficulties when I have no money, - I believe Providence watches over me. I have examples of this which I might term singular, did I not recognize in them the hand of Providence, which condescends even to our meanest wants.

66

Upon the whole, gold appears to me a very insignificant commodity. I believe that a man with any intellect may always provide for his wants; and for more than this, gold is useless; hence I have always despised it. Unhappily it is here bound up with a part of the respect which our fellow-men entertain for us, and this has never been a matter of indifference to me. Perhaps I may by and by free myself from this wickedness also it does not contribute to our peace.

of

"On account of this contempt money, I have for four years never accepted a farthing from my parents, because I have seven sisters, who are all young and in part uneducated, and because I have a father who, were I to allow it, would in his kindness bestow upon me that which is the right of his other children. I have not accepted even presents from them upon any pretence; and since then, I have, maintained myself very well, and stand more amon aise than before towards my parents, and particularly towards my too kind father.

"However, I promise you (how happy do I feel,

dear, noble friend, to be permitted to speak thus with you) — I promise you, that if I should fall into any pecuniary embarrassments (as there is no likelihood that I shall, with my present mode of thinking and my attendant fortune), you shall be the first person to whom I shall apply to whom I shall have applied since the time I declined assistance from my parents. It is worthy of your kind heart to receive this promise, and it is not unworthy of me to give it."

*

"Could anything indemnify me for the loss of some hours of your society, I should be indemnified. I have received the most touching proofs of the attachment of the good old widow, whom I have only seen for the third time, and of her gratitude for a few courtesies which were to me nothing-absolutely nothing, had they not cost me two days' absence from you. She wept when I took my leave, though I had allowed her to expect that she should see me again before my departure. I desire to lay aside all vanities; with some, the desire for literary fame, &c., I have in a certain degree succeeded; but the desire to be belovedbeloved by simple true hearts-is no vanity, and I will not lay it aside.

"What a wholly new, joyful, bright existence I have had since I became sure of being yours! how happy I am that so noble a soul bestows its sympathy upon me, and such sympathy!-this I can never express. Would that I could, that I might be able to thank you a! . . .

"My departure, dearest, draws near, and you have discovered the secret of making the day which formerly