There is no better friend, no lovelier associate.
"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." And comfort
does come, in the broad and kindly love and mercy toward humanity which
those who have known suffering so frequently evince, "Out of suffering
have emerged the strongest souls;" says Chapin, "the most massive
characters are seamed with scars; martyrs have put on their coronation
robes glittering with fire, and through their tears have the sorrowful
first seen the gates of heaven." "The echo of the nest-life, the voice
of our modest, fairer, holier soul" says Richter, "is audible only in a
sorrow-darkened bosom, as the nightingales warble when one veils their
eye." "Every noble crown is, and on earth will ever be, a crown of
thorns," says Carlyle "Sorrow", says Haunay, with rare knowledge, "turns
all the stars into mourners, and every wind of heaven into a dirge."
Sometimes all nature seems to condole with animate woes:
One weeping heart may tone a rural scene
To sadness. Reverently the trees will bend;
The little stream will sigh, with heaving pulse,
And swans, in soft and solemn silence float--
Grief's snowy celebrants.
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