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LETTERS. 257
TO MR. 8. If .
Srocksoim, 16th December, 1853.
I cannot let the old year close without sending you, my
young friend in..... my thanks for your letter of the
15th of October, together with my warmest congratulations
on your betrothal to an amiable young lady, and through it
to your near connection with a gentleman so estimable and
so esteemed as I had certainly heard this betrothal
already mentioned by report, but the confirmation thereof
reached me only through your letter. It gave me sincere
pleasure to hear that report had spoken the truth, for noth-
ing is so beneficial, nothing so develops a good, noble-
minded young man and contributes to settle him, as his
union with a young woman of genuine female worth.
In a profound and divine manner two such natures per-
fect themselves in their dependence on each other, while
they in love reflect in each other the profound and the
good which they individually possess, revealing treasures
hitherto hidden to themselves, and a new spiritual life
through the union of their souls, creating a reality and full-
ness of life of which before they had only a dim presenti-
ment, but which they never had felt. I speak here only of
the perfect union between two souls in love or in friendship,
for these two come very near each other. May you in your
wedlock find a happiness which I have also learnt to feel
in happy and sincere friendship, but of which now — only
the memory is left. Those whom I have thus loved, and
by whom I was thus loved myself— are alldead. But to
have thus loved, to have thus lived, is an unspeakable
blessing. We know then what heaven is, and we believe
then in its eternal reality. There lives then in our heart,
in our inmost soul, a spot perpetually green, where fount-
ains well forth, where roses are blooming —a peaceful
oasis, where an eternal summer is reigning, and to which
we can fly in darker moments as to our proper home. For
17
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