Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/267

GEORGE MEREDITH'S LETTERS 241 To a mercurial friend half-hesitantly in love : — To have found a suitable person and to give her up for anything on earth is like seeing a jewel on the shore and rejecting it on account of the trouble of conveying it home. But do you strongly recognize the jewel ? Have you found her ? A boy can't, but a man must reason in these cases. You may know your love from its power of persisting and bearing delay. Passion has not these powers. If your love of this person is true and not one of your fancies, it will soon light you clear enough. . . . And don't be hasty and think you are trusting your instinct by grasping suddenly at the golden apple. Can you bear poverty for her? Will she for you ? Can she, even if she would ? Think whether you are risking it, and remember that very few women bear it and retain their delicacy and charm. Some do. Can you think her one of the chosen? . . . To one wounded by death : — There is no consolation for a bleeding heart. Only the mind can help it, when the showers have passed. I might be of use in talk- ing with you. As it is, I do not know how far you have advanced in the comprehension of Life. I can but pray that you may be strengthened to bear what blows befall you, and ask for fortitude. This is the lesson for the young — that whatever the heart clings to lays it open to grief of necessity in such a world as ours, and whatever the soul embraces gives peace and is permanent. But that comes to us after many battles — or only to the strong mind which does not require it for enlightenment. So the strong mind measures and speaks, and the words are final. Always the balance is firmly held. When he has made his summary (as in his estimate of the two Carlyles, or his statement of the position of women, or his utterances concerning Ireland or South Africa, or his appreciation of Thomson, or his judgments of his own writings, his defence of Diana) all seems to have been said ; and when he is strongly moved by emotion, whether of indignation or joy, the urgency but lends power to his precision, never deflects his aim. When his eye dilates it sees most Men of Letters. J7