Margaret Fuller, Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli
W. H. Channing, Ed.

[1160] for my errors and fluctuations, your steady faith in my intentions, have done more to shield and sustain me than any other earthly influence. If I must now learn to dispense with feeling them constantly near me, at least their remembrance can never, never be less dear. I suppose I ought, instead of grieving that we are soon to be separated, now to feel grateful for an intimacy of extraordinary permanence, and certainly of unstained truth and perfect freedom on both sides.

As to my feelings, I take no pleasure in speaking of them; but I know not that I could give you a truer impression of them, than by these lines which I translate from the German of Uhland. They are entitled

Justification.

Our youthful fancies, idly fired,
     The fairest visions would embrace;
These, with impetuous tears desired,
     Float upward into starry space;
Heaven, upon the suppliant wild,
     Smiles down a gracious No!—In vain
The strife! Yet be consoled, poor child,
     For the wish passes with the pain.

But when from such idolatry
     The heart has turned, and wiser grown,
In earnestness and purity
     Would make a nobler plan its own,—
Yet, after all its zeal and care,
     Must of its chosen aim despair,--
Some bitter tears may be forgiven
     By Man, at least,—we trust, by Heaven.

Birth-day.

May 23d, 1836.—I have just been reading Goethe's Lebensregel. It is easy to say ‘Do not trouble yourself ’