ve given, are
forever taken out by Death, who is never cruel and who is often kind.

[Sidenote: The Wanderer's Rest]

We tread upon earth and revile it, forgetting that at last it hides our
defects and that through it our dead hearts climb to blossom in violets
and rue. Death is the Wanderer's Rest, where there is no questioning,
but the same healing sleep for all. In that divine peace, there is no
room for regret, since the earthly loves are sure of immortality.

[Sidenote: While the Dream Seemed True]

As much as is vital will live on, unchanging, changeless, and taking on
new sweetness with the years. That which is not wholly given, which is
ours only for a little time, will fade as surely as the roses in the
marble hands. Death has saved many a heartache, by coming while the
dream still seemed true.

In a single passage, Emerson has voiced the undying beauty and the
everlasting truth which lie beneath the perplexities of life.

"Oh, believe as thou livest, that every sound which is spoken over the
round world, which thou oughtest to hear, will vibrate on thine ear.
Every proverb, every book, every byword which belongs to thee for aid or
comfort, shall surely come home, through open or winding passages. Every
friend, whom not thy fantastic will, but the great and tender heart in
thee craveth, shall lock thee in his embrace. And this, because the
heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an
intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls
uninterruptedly an endless circulation through all men, as the water of
the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one."

[Sidenote: The Everlasting Love]

Sometimes, into two hearts great enough to hold it, and into two souls
where it may forever abide, there comes the Everlasting Love. It is
elemental, like fire and the sea, with the depth and splendour of the
surge and the glory of the flame. It makes the world a vast cathedral,
in which they two may worship, and where, even in the darkness, there is
the peace which passeth all understanding, because it is of God.

When the time of parting comes, for there is always that turning in the
road, the sadness is not so great because one must go on alone. Life
grows beautiful after a time and even wholly sweet, when a man and a
woman have so lived and loved and worked together, that death is not
good-bye, but rather--"auf wiedersehen."

The Consolations of Spinsterhood

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