y that God has been within me as I am within God, and I make
firm resolves always to feel such a communion.

You see, the thing is to put life to good account, not as we understand
it, even in our noblest affections, but in saying to ourselves: Let us
eat and drink to all that is eternal, for to-morrow we die to all that
is of earth. We acquire an increase of love in that moment when we
renounce our mean and anxious hopes.

_October 28._

This is nearly the end of the third month of a terrible trial, from
which the lessons will be wide and salutary not only to him who will
know how to listen, but to all the world, and therein lies the great
consolation for those who are involved in this torment. Let it also be
the consolation of those whose hopes are with the combatants.

This consolation consists especially in the supernaturally certain
conviction that all divine and immortal energy, working through mankind,
far from being enfeebled, will, on the contrary, be exalted and more
intensely effectual at the end of these storms.

Happy the man who will hear the song of peace as in the 'Pastoral
Symphony,' but happy already he who has foreknowledge of it amid the
tumult! And what does it matter in the end that this magnificent
prophecy is fulfilled in the absence of the prophet! He who has guessed
this has gleaned great joy upon earth. We can leave it to a higher being
to pronounce if the mission is accomplished.

_October 28_ (2nd letter, almost
at the same hour).

MY DEAR, DEAR MOTHER,--Another welcome moment to spend with you. We can
never say any but the same thing, but it is so fine a thing that it can
always be said in new ways.

To-day we are living under a sky of great clouds as swift and cold as
those of the Dutch landscape painters.

* * * * *

Dear, I dare not wish for anything--it must not be. I must not even
consider a partial relaxation. I assure you that the effort for
endurance is less painful than certain times of intensive preparation
that we have passed through. Only we can each moment brace ourselves in
a kind of resistance against what is evil in us, and leave every door
open to the good which comes from without.

. . . I am glad that you have read Tolstoi: he also took part in war. He
judged it; he accepted its teaching. If you can glance at the admirable
_War and Peace_, you will find pictures that our situation recalls. It
will make you understand the li