and _French_ thought)--did nothing by my
own arts or cleverness in the matter ... so what pretence have the
_more_ artful or more clever for:--but I cannot write out this
folly--I am yours for ever, with the utmost sense of gratitude--to say
I would give you my life joyfully is little.... I would, I hope, do
that for two or three other people--but I am not conscious of any
imaginable point in which I would not implicitly devote my whole self
to you--be disposed of by you as for the best. There! It is not to be
spoken of--let me _live_ it into proof, beloved!

And for 'disappointment and a burden' ... now--let us get quite away
from ourselves, and not see one of the filaments, but only the _cords_
of love with the world's horny eye. Have we such jarring tastes, then?
Does your inordinate attachment to gay life interfere with my deep
passion for society? 'Have they common sympathy in each other's
pursuits?'--always asks Mrs. Tomkins! Well, here was I when you knew
me, fixed in my way of life, meaning with God's help to write what
may be written and so die at peace with myself so far. Can you help me
or no? Do you _not_ help me so much that, if you saw the more likely
peril for poor human nature, you would say, 'He will be jealous of all
the help coming from me,--none from him to me!'--And _that would_ be a
consequence of the help, all-too-great for hope of return, with any
one less possessed than I with the exquisiteness of being
_transcended_ and the _blest_ one.

But--'here comes the Selah and the voice is hushed'--I will speak of
other things. When we are together one day--the days I believe in--I
mean to set about that reconsidering 'Sordello'--it has always been
rather on my mind--but yesterday I was reading the 'Purgatorio' and
the first speech of the group of which Sordello makes one struck me
with a new significance, as well describing the man and his purpose
and fate in my own poem--see; one of the burthened, contorted souls
tells Virgil and Dante--

Noi fummo gia tutti per forza morti,
E _peccatori infin' all' ultim' ora_:
QUIVI--_lume del ciel ne fece accorti
Si che, pentendo e perdonando, fora
Di vita uscimmo a Dio pacificati
Che del disio di se veder n'accora._[1]

Which is just my Sordello's story ... could I '_do_' it off hand, I
wonder--

And sinners were we to the extreme hour;
_Then_, light from heaven fell, making us aware,
So that, repenting us and pardoned,