ferent politicians! Nay, and
the orator treads in a beaten round; the matters he discusses have been
discussed a thousand times before; language is ready-shaped to his
purpose; he speaks out of a cut-and-dry vocabulary. But you--may it not
be that your defence reposes on some subtlety of feeling, not so much as
touched upon in Shakespeare, to express which, like a pioneer, you must
venture forth into zones of thought still unsurveyed, and become
yourself a literary innovator? For even in love there are unlovely
humours; ambiguous acts, unpardonable words, may yet have sprung from a
kind sentiment. If the injured one could read your heart, you may be
sure that he would understand and pardon; but, alas! the heart cannot be
shown--it has to be demonstrated in words. Do you think it is a hard
thing to write poetry? Why, that is to write poetry, and of a high, if
not the highest, order.

I should even more admire "the lifelong and heroic literary labours" of
my fellow-men, patiently clearing up in words their loves and their
contentions, and speaking their autobiography daily to their wives, were
it not for a circumstance which lessens their difficulty and my
admiration by equal parts. For life, though largely, is not entirely
carried on by literature. We are subject to physical passions and
contortions; the voice breaks and changes, and speaks by unconscious and
winning inflections; we have legible countenances, like an open book;
things that cannot be said look eloquently through the eyes; and the
soul, not locked into the body as a dungeon, dwells ever on the
threshold with appealing signals. Groans and tears, looks and gestures,
a flush or a paleness, are often the most clear reporters of the heart,
and speak more directly to the hearts of others. The message flies by
these interpreters in the least space of time, and the misunderstanding
is averted in the moment of its birth. To explain in words takes time
and a just and patient hearing; and in the critical epochs of a close
relation, patience and justice are not qualities on which we can rely.
But the look or the gesture explains things in a breath; they tell their
message without ambiguity; unlike speech, they cannot stumble, by the
way, on a reproach or an allusion that should steel your friend against
the truth; and then they have a higher authority, for they are the
direct expression of the heart, not yet transmitted through the
unfaithful and sophisticating brain.