re of the
most beautiful--the most noble feelings; it is no folly to feel
oneself great, strong, invincible; it is not a folly to have a
good, honest, and generous heart; it is no folly to be filled with
good faith; it is not a folly to devote oneself for the good of
others; it is not a folly to live thus out of real life.

No, no; that cold wisdom which pronounces so severe a judgment upon
all it cannot do; that wisdom which owes its birth to the death of
so many great, noble, and sweet things; that wisdom which only
comes with infirmities, and which decorates them with such fine
names--which calls decay of the powers of the stomach and loss of
appetite sobriety; the cooling of the heart and the stagnation of
the blood a return to reason; envious impotence a disdain for
futile things;--this wisdom would be the greatest, the most
melancholy of follies, if it were not the commencement of the death
of the heart and the senses.

"Dandelion Clocks" resembles one of Karr's "Letters" in containing the
germs of a three volumed romance, but they _are_ the germs only--and
the "proportions" of the picture are consequently well preserved.
Indeed, the tale always reminds me of a series of peaceful scenes by
Cuyp, with low horizons, sleek cattle, and a glow in the sky
betokening the approach of sunset. First we have "Peter Paul and his
two sisters playing in the pastures" at blowing dandelion clocks:

Rich, green, Dutch pastures, unbroken by hedge or wall, which
stretched--like an emerald ocean--to the horizon and met the sky.
The cows stood ankle-deep in it and chewed the cud, the clouds
sailed slowly over it to the sea, and on a dry hillock sat Mother,
in her broad sun-hat, with one eye to the cows, and one to the
linen she was bleaching, thinking of her farm.

The actual _outlines_ of this scene may be traced in the German
woodcut to which the tale was written, but the _colouring_ is Julie's!
The only disturbing element in this quiet picture is Peter Paul's
restless, inquiring heart. What wonder that when his bulb-growing
uncle fails to solve the riddle of life, Peter Paul should go out into
the wider world and try to find a solution for himself? But the
answers to our life problems full often are to be found within, for
those who will look, and so Peter Paul comes back after some years to
find that:

The elder sist