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STRAIT IS THE GATE 160

we not realise last autumn what misery it covered over ? ... "The true one! Ah! God forbid! We were born for a happiness other than that ... “Just as it was our correspondence which spoilt our meeting last autumn, so now the memory of your presence yesterday disenchants my letter of to-day. What has happened to the delight I used to take in writing to you? By writing to each other, by being with each other, we have exhausted all that is pure in the joy to which our love dare aspire. And now, in spite of myself, I exclaim, like Orsino in Twelfth Night: ‘Enough; no more;' tis not so sweet now as it was before.' “Good-bye, my friend. Hic incipit amor Dei. Ah! will you ever know how much I love you? ...Until the end I will be your "ALISSA."


Against the snare of virtue I was defenceless. All heroism attracted and dazzled me, for I could not separate it from love. Alissa's letter inspired me with a rash and intoxicating enthusiasm. God knows that I strove after more virtue only for her sake. Any path, provided it climbed upwards, would lead me to her. Ah! the ground

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