Xv

She, seriously:

Duty?--Comfort of the sinner And the saint!--When grief and trial Weigh us, and within our inner Selves,--responsive to love’s viol,-- Hope’s soft voice grows thin and thinner. It is kin to self-denial.

Self-denial! Through whose feeling We are gainer though we ’re loser; All the finer force revealing Of our natures. No accuser Is the conscience then, but healing Of the wound of which we ’re chooser.

Who the loser, who the winner, If the ardor fail as preacher?-- None who loved was yet beginner, Though another’s love-beseecher: Love’s revealment ’s of the inner Life and God Himself is teacher.

Heine said “no flower knoweth Of the fragrance it revealeth; Song, its heart that overfloweth, Never nightingale’s heart feeleth”-- Such is love the spirit groweth, Love unconscious if it healeth.