little reviving breath comes again. I have had the good luck
to be appointed corporal on guard in delightful quarters, where I am in
command. Perfect spring weather. And what can I say of this Nature?
Never before have I so fully felt her amplitude of life. Hours and
seasons following one another surely, infallibly, unalterably, in
unchanging unity; the looker-on has a glimpse of the immensity of the
force that first set them afoot.

I had often known the delight of watching the nearer coming of a season,
but it had not before been given to me to live in that delight moment by
moment. It is so that one learns, without the help of any kind of
science, a certain intuition, vague perhaps, but altogether
indisputable, of the Absolute. There was a man of science, possibly a
great one, who declared that he had not discovered God under his
scalpel. What a shocking mistake for an able mind to make! Where was the
need of a scalpel, when the joy and the thrill of our senses are
all-sufficient to convince us of the purpose commanding our whole
evolution? The poet watches the coming of the seasons as it were great
ships that will, he knows, set sail again. At times the storm may delay
them, but at their next coming they will bring with them the rich
fragrance of the unknown coasts. A season coming again to our own shores
seems to bring us delights which it has learnt by long travel.

Ah, dearest mother, if one could have again a retreat for the soul! O
solitude, for those worthy to possess it! How seldom is it inviolate!

_February 11._

It may possibly be a great intended privilege for our generation to be a
witness of these horrors, but what a terrible price to pay! Well, faith,
eternal faith, is over all. Faith in an evolution, an Order, beyond our
human patience.

_February 11_ (2nd day in
the front line).

In such hours as these one must perforce take refuge in the extra-human
principle of sacrifice; it is impossible for mere humanity to go
further.

Let go all poor human hope. Seek something beyond; perhaps you have
already found it. As for me, I feel myself to be unworthy in such days
to be anything more than a memory. I picked some flowers in the mud.
Keep them in remembrance of me.

_5 o'clock._

Courage through all, courage in spite of all.

_February 13_ (4th day in
the front line).

BELOVED,--After the days of tears and of rebellion of the heart that
have so shaken me, I pull myself together agai