What
does the breach mean?--the incurable dissonance and
alienation? Are we greater than nature, or less? Is the
opposition final, the prophecy of man's ultimate and hopeless
defeat at the hands of nature?--or is it, in the Hegelian
sense, the mere development of a necessary conflict, leading
to a profounder and intenser unity? The old, old
questions--stock possessions of the race, yet burned anew by
life into the blood and brain of the individual.
"I see Diana in the garden with her nurse. She has been
running to and fro, playing with the dog, feeding the goat.
Now I see her sitting still, her chin on her hands, looking
out to sea. She seems to droop; but I am sure she is not
tired. It is an attitude not very natural to a child,
especially to a child so full of physical health and vigor;
yet she often falls into it.
"When I see it I am filled with dread. She knows nothing, yet
the cloud seems to be upon her. Does she already ask herself
questions--about her father--about this solitary life?
"Juliet was not herself--not in her full sane mind--when I
promised her.
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