s my thoughts to you
on paper as I find it easy by word of mouth. It seems a formal
thing to write, and yet there should be nothing less marred by
formality than such a letter as mine. It is only that the choice is
too great. I have too much to say, and so say nothing. I would ask,
if I were so honoured by Heaven, the tongues of men and of angels,
and all the mighty word-music of sage and prophet, that I might
tell you how I love you, my heart's own. I would ask that for one
hour I might hold in my hand the baton of heaven's choir. Then
would I lead those celestial musicians through such a grand plain
chant as time has never dreamt of, nor has eternity yet heard it;
so that rank on rank of angels and saints should take up the song,
until the arches of the outer firmament rang again, and the stars
chimed together; and all the untold hierarchy of archangelic voice
and heavenly instrument should cry, as with one soul, the
confession of this heart of mine--'I love.'

"Another day has passed, and I think I have heard in my dreams the
bursts of music that I would fain have wafted to your waking ears.
Verily the lawyers in New York say well, that I am not Claudius.
Claudius was a thing of angles and books, mathematical and earthy,
believing indeed in the greatness of things supernal, but not
having tasted thereof. My beloved, God has given me a new soul to
love you with, so great that it seems as though it would break
through the walls of my heart and cry aloud to you. This new
Claudius is a man of infinite power to rise above earthly things,
above everything that is below you--and what things that are in
earth are not below you, lady mine?

"Again the time has passed, in a dull reluctant fashion, as if he
delighted to torment, like the common bore of society. He lingers
and dawdles through his round of hours as though it joyed him to be
sluggish. It has blown a little, and most of the people are
sea-sick. Thank goodness! I suppose that is a very inhuman
sentiment, but the masses of cheerful humanity, gluttonously
fattening on the ship's fare and the smooth sea, were becoming
intolerable. There is not one person on board who looks as though
he or she had left a human being behind who had any claim to be
regretted. Did any one of these people ever lo