Therefore I could envy my beloved brother to-day no less sincerely than I pitied him yesterday.
Joy is the best thing in life, and who bestows it more certainly and lavishly than the little winged god?
It is fortunate for my Charles that he is again permitted to quaff the beaker of happiness! Only too soon--I know it--he will again withdraw it from his lips with his own hand, if it were only because the inclination to self-torture which he inherits, the ascetic instinct, that constantly increases in strength, destroys and stamps as sinful forgetfulness of duty every pleasure which he enjoys for any length of time.

We will hope that he will not retain this new happiness too briefly.

It would be of service to us all.

What he might possibly have granted me after long hesitation and consideration, and with many a delay, he yielded after mass this morning with smiling lips.

Love expands the heart, and at the same time enlarges the views, especially if it is not an unfortunate one; but this Barbara Blomberg is a genuine daughter of Eve, over whom the mother of nations, if she met her by chance, would rejoice.