Alas! well understood, this place is
the earth, this country of one's dreams is heaven, and this suffering is
the eternal homesickness, the thirst for happiness.
"_In der Beschraenkung zeigt sich erst der Meister_," says Goethe. _Male
resignation_, this also is the motto of those who are masters of the art
of life; "manly," that is to say, courageous, active, resolute,
persevering, "resignation," that is to say, self-sacrifice,
renunciation, limitation. Energy in resignation, there lies the wisdom
of the sons of earth, the only serenity possible in this life of
struggle and of combat. In it is the peace of martyrdom, in it too the
promise of triumph.
April 28, 1852. (Lancy.) [Footnote: A village near Geneva.]--Once more I
feel the spring languor creeping over me, the spring air about me. This
morning the poetry of the scene, the song of the birds, the tranquil
sunlight, the breeze blowing over the fresh green fields, all rose into
and filled my heart. Now all is silent. O silence, thou art terrible!
terrible as that calm of the ocean which lets the eye penetrate the
fathomless abysses below. Thou showest us in ourselves depths which make
us giddy, inextinguishable needs, treasures of suffering. Welcome
tempests! at least they blur and trouble the surface of these waters
with their terrible secrets.
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