of disillusion and vain solicitudes; in the light of one beautiful and
compassionate countenance the unquiet memories of failure shall give up
their exceeding bitterness.

And though the style and instinct of modern life are hostile to such
love, though in prosperity it is ignored and in adversity often
overborne by a vain uproar of lamentation, yet even in a self-indulgent
and furious world it still draws many to the severe exaltation of its
service. We cannot approach the heights where a Plato and a Dante walked
with ease, but far beneath upon the lower slopes we can draw a breath of
new life as we fix our weaker eyes upon the glory which they saw so
near. Although the men who have there ascended are a supreme company, we
may yet presume to follow; for let it never be said that the gods have
reserved for surpassing genius the consolation of which lesser men have
so much deeper need. But he who would reach a serener air must press
forward strenuously; for as a mountain may have one bare and northern
slope, and another sunlit and clothed with verdure, and yet there may be
a path on each side to the summit, so it is with the ascent to this
felicity. One lingers amid pleasant groves and laughing waters;
another, undistracted by the beauty of any lower zone, but fixing his
eyes upon the far summit, crosses the chill rocky slopes, never feeling
the warmth of the sun and only seeing his brightness reflected from the
highest peak. Though the ways of the two travellers lie far apart until
the end, their endurance may be crowned with the same reward; but he who
knew no dalliance and plucked no fruit has from the beginning seen the
goal clearly, and lived steadfastly in its distant promise. And do you
tell me that this is not love or joy, you who saunter in the verdant
southern valleys breathing a present happiness with the perfume of a
thousand flowers? Your way may lead you upward after long vicissitudes,
but endurance will more swiftly fail you for the last most arduous
ascent. Very love is of the heights, and he whose thoughts have long
been thither exalted will breathe with least pain the attenuate upper
air.

To this pilgrimage the diffident are foreordained; it is their happiest
hour when they take staff and scrip and set out in earnest for the
shrine built among the mountains. The gardens of Armida are not for
them, nor the warm breezes fragrant of fruit and flowers; but the vision
of a far peak flushed at sundawn dra