I was merely thinking aloud.

I am too happy if my thoughts please you--if anything I say can even for a moment relieve your mind from the pressure of this sudden grief.

It is not consolation I offer you.

I am not a priest, but a man of action; and it is action I propose to you, not as an anodyne for sorrow, but simply because it is right that in these days we should all strive with a good will.

Your peasants are many of them in an evil case: you can save them and make them happy, even though you find no happiness for yourself.